Virulence regulation in Staphylococcus aureus: the need for in vivo analysis of virulence factor regulation.
Staphylococcus aureus is a pathogenic microorganism that is responsible for a wide variety of clinical infections. These infections can be relatively mild, but serious, life-threatening infections may result from the expression of staphylococcal virulence factors that are coordinated by virulence regulators. Much work has been done to characterize the actions of staphylococcal virulence regulators in broth culture. Recently, several laboratories showed that transcriptional analyses of virulence regulators in in vivo animal models or in human infection did not correlate with transcriptional analyses accomplished in vitro. In describing the differences between in vitro and in vivo transcription of staphylococcal virulence regulators, we hope to encourage investigators to study virulence regulators using infection models whenever possible.
Pragman
Alexa A
AA
Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, 960 Mayo Building, MMC 196, 420 Delaware St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. alexa@umn.edu
Schlievert
Patrick M
PM
D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D037521:Virulence Factors