title: New role of the disulfide stress effector YjbH in β-lactam susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus.
abstract: Staphylococcus aureus is exposed to multiple antimicrobial compounds, including oxidative burst products and antibiotics. The various mechanisms and regulatory pathways governing susceptibility or resistance are complex and only superficially understood. Bacillus subtilis recently has been shown to control disulfide stress responses by the thioredoxin-related YjbH protein, which binds to the transcriptional regulator Spx and controls its degradation via the proteasome-like ClpXP protease. We show that the S. aureus YjbH homolog has a role in susceptibility to the disulfide stress-inducing agent diamide that is similar to that in B. subtilis, and we demonstrate that the four cysteine residues in YjbH are required for this activity. In addition, the inactivation of YjbH led to moderate resistance to oxacillin and other β-lactam antibiotics, and this phenotypic change was associated with higher penicillin-binding protein 4 levels and increased peptidoglycan cross-linking. Of note, the impact of YjbH on β-lactam susceptibility still was observed when the four cysteines of YjbH were mutated, indicating that the roles of YjbH in disulfide stress and β-lactam resistance rely on different types of interactions. These data suggest that the ClpXP adaptor YjbH has more target proteins than previously thought, and that oxidative burst and β-lactam resistance mechanisms of S. aureus are closely linked.
authors.affiliation: Cellular and Molecular Microbiology, Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine, University of Tübingen, Elfriede-Aulhorn-Straße 6, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Göhring
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fedtke
authors.forename: Guoqing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Ana M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Jorge
authors.forename: Mariana G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Pinho
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bertsche
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peschel
mesh_terms: D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D004220:Disulfides / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D046915:Penicillin-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010457:Peptidoglycan / Q000378:metabolism; D016897:Respiratory Burst; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013879:Thioredoxins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D018440:beta-Lactam Resistance / Q000187:drug effects*; D047090:beta-Lactams / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004220:Disulfides; D046915:Penicillin-Binding Proteins; D010457:Peptidoglycan; D047090:beta-Lactams; D013879:Thioredoxins