title: Sugar-responsive gene expression and the agr system are required for colony spreading in Staphylococcus aureus.
abstract: Staphylococcus aureus spreads on soft agar surfaces, which is called "colony spreading". Here, we report that the colony spreading in S. aureus was promoted by the addition of glucose to soft agar plates. Disruption of ccpA and hprK, which are involved in catabolite repression, decreased the colony spreading ability promoted by glucose. Deletion of the agr locus, a virulence regulatory element whose expression is activated by glucose in a ccpA-dependent manner, abolished the colony spreading promoted by glucose. Disruption of clpP and arlRS, which contributes to agr expression, also decreased glucose-promoted colony spreading. These findings suggest that S. aureus colony spreading requires the expression of agr, which is positively regulated by environmental carbon sources, and that virulence gene expression and colony spreading induced by agr are simultaneously activated in the S. aureus infectious process.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-1, 7-Chome, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomofumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: Chikara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kaito
authors.forename: Yosuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Omae
authors.forename: Kazuhisa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sekimizu
mesh_terms: D000362:Agar; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry; D017353:Gene Deletion; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C095698:Agr protein, Staphylococcus aureus; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003470:Culture Media; D015534:Trans-Activators; D037521:Virulence Factors; D000362:Agar