title: Autoinducer-2 increases biofilm formation via an ica- and bhp-dependent manner in Staphylococcus epidermidis RP62A.
abstract: Staphylococcus epidermidis has become the most common cause of nosocomial bacteraemia and the principal organism responsible for indwelling medical device -associated infections. Its pathogenicity is mainly due to its ability to form biofilms on the implanted medical devices. Biofilm formation is a quorum-sensing (QS)-dependent process controlled by autoinducers, which are signalling molecules. Here, we investigated the function of the autoinducer-2 (AI-2) QS system, especially the influence of AI-2 on biofilm formation in S. epidermidis RP62A. Results showed that the addition of AI-2 leads to a significant increase in biofilm formation, in contrast with previous studies which showed that AI-2 limits biofilm formation in Staphylococci. We found that AI-2 increases biofilm formation by enhancing the transcription of the ica operon, which is a known component in the AI-2-regulated biofilm pathway. In addition, we first observed that the transcript level of bhp, which encodes a biofilm-associated protein, was also increased following the addition of AI-2. Furthermore, we found that, among the known biofilm regulator genes (icaR, sigB, rbsU, sarA, sarX, sarZ, clpP, agrA, abfR, arlRS, saeRS), only icaR can be regulated by AI-2, suggesting that AI-2 may regulate biofilm formation by an icaR-dependent mechanism in S. epidermidis RP62A.
authors: School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui 230036, China. Electronic address: xuet@ahau.edu.cn.
authors: Ting
authors: T
authors: Xue
authors: School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui 230036, China.
authors: Jingtian
authors: J
authors: Ni
authors: School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui 230036, China.
authors: Fei
authors: F
authors: Shang
authors: School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui 230036, China.
authors: Xiaolin
authors: X
authors: Chen
authors: School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui 230036, China.
authors: Ming
authors: M
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development*; D006714:Homoserine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D007783:Lactones / Q000378:metabolism*; D009876:Operon / Q000276:immunology; D013212:Staphylococcus epidermidis / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000276:immunology; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D007783:Lactones; C091088:N-octanoylhomoserine lactone; D006714:Homoserine
keywords: AI-2; Biofilm; Staphylococcus epidermidis; bhp; ica