title: A histidine-to-arginine substitution in Panton-Valentine leukocidin from USA300 community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus does not impair its leukotoxicity.
abstract: Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) is a synergohymenotropic toxin (SHT) produced by Staphylococcus aureus. At present, there are conflicting reports on the leukotoxic activity of PVL and its consequent role as a virulence factor in USA300. In this work, we compared the cytolytic effects induced by wild-type PVL and those of PVL harboring a histidine-to-arginine substitution at amino acid 176 in the S. aureus USA300 strain. We also investigated the capacity of wild-type and H176R LukS-PV to recruit and form pores with the F components of other SHTs. For this purpose, we assayed polymorphonuclear neutrophils for leukotoxicity after incubation with either culture supernatants from strains bearing different PVL haplotypes or recombinant toxins from different types of SHT. We show here that the H176R variation in the PVL sequence causes no change in leukotoxicity and that the R variant is as efficient as wild-type PVL at inducing pore formation in leukocytes.
authors.affiliation: Université Lyon 1, Centre National de Référence des Staphylocoques, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Timothée
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Besseyre des Horts
authors.forename: Oana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dumitrescu
authors.forename: Cédric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Badiou
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Benito
authors.forename: Jerome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Etienne
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vandenesch
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lina
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D001120:Arginine / Q000737:chemistry*; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D005098:Exotoxins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006639:Histidine / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D007956:Leukocidins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000187:drug effects; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D005098:Exotoxins; D007956:Leukocidins; C078284:Panton-Valentine leukocidin; D006639:Histidine; D001120:Arginine