<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Group A <italic>Streptococcus</italic> (GAS) is a Gram-positive human pathogen that causes a variety of diseases ranging from pharyngitis to life-threatening streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Recently, several global gene expression analyses have yielded extensive new information regarding the regulation of genes encoding known and putative virulence factors in GAS. A microarray analysis found that transcription of the GAS gene <italic>M5005_Spy_1343</italic> was significantly increased in response to interaction with human polymorphonuclear leukocytes. <italic>M5005_Spy_1343</italic> is predicted to encode a member of the LysR family of transcriptional regulators and is located upstream of a putative operon containing six genes. Five of these genes have sequence similarity to genes involved in short-chain fatty acid metabolism, whereas the sixth gene (<italic>lux</italic>S) is found in many bacterial species and is involved in quorum sensing. Unexpectedly, inactivation of the <italic>M5005_Spy_1343</italic> gene resulted in hypervirulence in an intraperitoneal mouse model of infection. Increased virulence was not due to changes in <italic>lux</italic>S gene expression. We postulate that short-chain fatty acid metabolism is involved in GAS pathogenesis.</p>
</abstract>

Group A Streptococcus (GAS) is a Gram-positive human pathogen that causes a variety of diseases ranging from pharyngitis to life-threatening streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Recently, several global gene expression analyses have yielded extensive new information regarding the regulation of genes encoding known and putative virulence factors in GAS. A microarray analysis found that transcription of the GAS gene M5005_Spy_1343 was significantly increased in response to interaction with human polymorphonuclear leukocytes. M5005_Spy_1343 is predicted to encode a member of the LysR family of transcriptional regulators and is located upstream of a putative operon containing six genes. Five of these genes have sequence similarity to genes involved in short-chain fatty acid metabolism, whereas the sixth gene (luxS) is found in many bacterial species and is involved in quorum sensing. Unexpectedly, inactivation of the M5005_Spy_1343 gene resulted in hypervirulence in an intraperitoneal mouse model of infection. Increased virulence was not due to changes in luxS gene expression. We postulate that short-chain fatty acid metabolism is involved in GAS pathogenesis.

Deletion of <italic>ato</italic>R from <italic>Streptococcus pyogenes</italic> Results in Hypervirulence in a Mouse Model of Sepsis and is LuxS Independent

Houston Methodist Research Institute, and Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine

Polish Journal of Microbiology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Deletion of R from  Results in Hypervirulence in a Mouse Model of Sepsis and is LuxS Independent

Group A Streptococcus (GAS) is a Gram-positive human pathogen that causes a variety of diseases ranging from pharyngitis to life-threatening streptococcal...

Deletion of atoR from Streptococcus pyogenes Results in Hypervirulence in a Mouse Model of Sepsis and is LuxS Independent

Published Online: Mar 30, 2017

Page range: 17 - 24

Received: Nov 17, 2016

Accepted: Jan 27, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5604/pjm-2017-017

© 2017 IZABELA SITKIEWICZ et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.