title: Bacterial Hypoxic Responses Revealed as Critical Determinants of the Host-Pathogen Outcome by TnSeq Analysis of Staphylococcus aureus Invasive Infection.
abstract: Staphylococcus aureus is capable of infecting nearly every organ in the human body. In order to infiltrate and thrive in such diverse host tissues, staphylococci must possess remarkable flexibility in both metabolic and virulence programs. To investigate the genetic requirements for bacterial survival during invasive infection, we performed a transposon sequencing (TnSeq) analysis of S. aureus during experimental osteomyelitis. TnSeq identified 65 genes essential for staphylococcal survival in infected bone and an additional 148 mutants with compromised fitness in vivo. Among the loci essential for in vivo survival was SrrAB, a staphylococcal two-component system previously reported to coordinate hypoxic and nitrosative stress responses in vitro. Healthy bone is intrinsically hypoxic, and intravital oxygen monitoring revealed further decreases in skeletal oxygen concentrations upon S. aureus infection. The fitness of an srrAB mutant during osteomyelitis was significantly increased by depletion of neutrophils, suggesting that neutrophils impose hypoxic and/or nitrosative stresses on invading bacteria. To more globally evaluate staphylococcal responses to changing oxygenation, we examined quorum sensing and virulence factor production in staphylococci grown under aerobic or hypoxic conditions. Hypoxic growth resulted in a profound increase in quorum sensing-dependent toxin production, and a concomitant increase in cytotoxicity toward mammalian cells. Moreover, aerobic growth limited quorum sensing and cytotoxicity in an SrrAB-dependent manner, suggesting a mechanism by which S. aureus modulates quorum sensing and toxin production in response to environmental oxygenation. Collectively, our results demonstrate that bacterial hypoxic responses are key determinants of the staphylococcal-host interaction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.
authors.forename: Aimee D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Wilde
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.
authors.forename: Nicole E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Putnam
authors.affiliation: Departments of Ophthalmology and Microbiology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Valentino
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.
authors.forename: Neal D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Hammer
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.
authors.forename: Zachery R
authors.initials: ZR
authors.lastname: Lonergan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.
authors.forename: Scott A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Hinger
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.
authors.forename: Esar E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Aysanoa
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Catlyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blanchard
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Dunman
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medicine and Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Gregory A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Wasserman
authors.affiliation: Skirball Institute Program in Molecular Pathogenesis, Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, New York University Medical Center, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medicine and Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shopsin
authors.affiliation: Departments of Ophthalmology and Microbiology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Gilmore
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.|Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Healthcare Services, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.
authors.forename: Eric P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Skaar
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.|Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America.
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Cassat
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015687:Cell Hypoxia / Q000235:genetics*; D002460:Cell Line; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005814:Genes, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010019:Osteomyelitis / Q000382:microbiology*; D053038:Quorum Sensing / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000235:genetics*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D037521:Virulence Factors