title: A novel gene, fudoh, in the SCCmec region suppresses the colony spreading ability and virulence of Staphylococcus aureus.
abstract: Staphylococcus aureus colonies can spread on soft agar plates. We compared colony spreading of clinically isolated methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). All MSSA strains showed colony spreading, but most MRSA strains (73%) carrying SCCmec type-II showed little colony spreading. Deletion of the entire SCCmec type-II region from these MRSA strains restored colony spreading. Introduction of a novel gene, fudoh, carried by SCCmec type-II into Newman strain suppressed colony spreading. MRSA strains with high spreading ability (27%) had no fudoh or a point-mutated fudoh that did not suppress colony spreading. The fudoh-transformed Newman strain had decreased exotoxin production and attenuated virulence in mice. Most community-acquired MRSA strains carried SCCmec type-IV, which does not include fudoh, and showed high colony spreading ability. These findings suggest that fudoh in the SCCmec type-II region suppresses colony spreading and exotoxin production, and is involved in S. aureus pathogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Chikara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kaito
authors.forename: Yosuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Omae
authors.forename: Yasuhiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Makiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagata
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Taiji
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aoto
authors.forename: Teruyo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Keiichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hiramatsu
authors.forename: Kazuhisa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sekimizu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D005098:Exotoxins / Q000378:metabolism; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D016106:Methicillin Resistance / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014169:Transformation, Bacterial; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D005098:Exotoxins