Journal
VIRULENCE
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages 470-480Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.1080/21505594.2021.1875683
Keywords
Staphylococcus aureus; virulence; YjbH; YjbI; oxidative stress; surface structure; gene expression; protease; pigment; silkworm
Categories
Funding
- JSPS KAKENHI [JP15H05783, JP19K16653, JP19K07140]
- TBRF fellowship
- Austrian Science Fund [FWF-P29304-B22]
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This study showed that introducing the yjbH gene instead of the yjbI gene restored virulence in both silkworms and mice in Staphylococcus aureus mutants; yjbH, downstream to yjbI in a two-gene operon yjbIH, was responsible for this restoration of virulence; disruption of yjbI and yjbH genes resulted in differential gene expression and significant downregulation of virulence-related genes.
We previously reported that disruption of the yjbI gene reduced virulence of Staphylococcus aureus. In this study, we found virulence in both silkworms and mice was restored by introducing the yjbH gene but not the yjbI gene to both yjbI and yjbH genes-disrupted mutants, suggesting that yjbH, the gene downstream to the yjbI gene in a two-gene operon-yjbIH, is responsible for this phenomenon. We further observed a decrease in various surface-associated proteins and changes in cell envelope glycostructures in the mutants. RNA-seq analysis revealed that disruption of the yjbI and the yjbH genes resulted in differential expression of a broad range of genes, notably, significant downregulation of genes involved in virulence and oxidative stress. Administration of N-acetyl-L-cysteine, a free-radical scavenger, restored the virulence in both the mutants. Our findings suggested that YjbH plays a role in staphylococcal pathogenicity by regulating virulence gene expression, affecting the bacterial surface structure, and conferring resistance to oxidative stress in a host.
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