title: Bacterial interference caused by autoinducing peptide variants.
abstract: The synthesis of virulence factors and other extracellular proteins by Staphylococcus aureus is globally controlled by the agr locus, which encodes a two-component signaling pathway whose activating ligand is an agr-encoded autoinducing peptide. The cognate peptides produced by some strains inhibit the expression of agr in other strains, and the amino acid sequences of peptide and receptor are markedly different between such strains, suggesting a hypervariability-generating mechanism. Cross-inhibition of gene expression represents a type of bacterial interference that could be correlated with the ability of one strain to exclude others from infection or colonization sites, or both.
authors.affiliation: Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beavis
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Novick
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000898:Antibiosis; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D019281:Dimerization; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity; D015534:Trans-Activators; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: C095698:Agr protein, Staphylococcus aureus; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D010455:Peptides; D015534:Trans-Activators; D014157:Transcription Factors