title: The Transcriptional Regulator CpsY Is Important for Innate Immune Evasion in Streptococcus pyogenes.
abstract: As an exclusively human pathogen,Streptococcus pyogenes(the group A streptococcus [GAS]) has specifically adapted to evade host innate immunity and survive in multiple tissue niches, including blood. GAS can overcome the metabolic constraints of the blood environment and expresses various immunomodulatory factors necessary for survival and immune cell resistance. Here we present our investigation of one such factor, the predicted LysR family transcriptional regulator CpsY. The encoding gene,cpsY, was initially identified as being required for GAS survival in a transposon-site hybridization (TraSH) screen in whole human blood. CpsY is homologous with transcriptional regulators ofStreptococcus mutans(MetR),Streptococcus iniae(CpsY), andStreptococcus agalactiae(MtaR) that regulate methionine transport, amino acid metabolism, resistance to neutrophil-mediated killing, and survivalin vivoOur investigation indicated that CpsY is involved in GAS resistance to innate immune cells of its human host. However, GAS CpsY does not manifest thein vitrophenotypes of its homologs in other streptococcal species. GAS CpsY appears to regulate a small set of genes that is markedly different from the regulons of its homologs. The differential expression of these genes depends on the growth medium, and CpsY modestly influences their expression. The GAS CpsY regulon includes known virulence factors (mntE,speB,spd,nga[spn],prtS[SpyCEP], andsse) and cell surface-associated factors of GAS (emm1,mur1.2,sibA[cdhA], andM5005_Spy0500). Intriguingly, the loss of CpsY in GAS does not result in virulence defects in murine models of infection, suggesting that CpsY function in immune evasion is specific to the human host.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Luis A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Vega
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Kayla M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Valdes
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Ganesh S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Sundar
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Ashton T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Belew
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Emrul
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Berge
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Curry
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.|Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Najib M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7970-3312
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: El-Sayed
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA lebreton@umd.edu kmciver@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Yoann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Le Breton
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA lebreton@umd.edu kmciver@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Kevin S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: McIver
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D008264:Macrophages / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D051379:Mice; D050296:Microbial Viability; D009154:Mutation; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000401:mortality; D013297:Streptococcus pyogenes / Q000502:physiology*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors
keywords: CpsY; LysR family regulators; human-specific virulence; immune evasion; transcriptional regulation