期刊
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
卷 107, 期 32, 页码 14407-14412出版社
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0911032107
关键词
Staphyloccus aureus; virulence; exotoxins
资金
- National Institutes of Health [R01 AI57585, R01 AI074283, U54 AI57153, R01 AI038901, P20 RR15587, P20 RR016454]
- Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics [SPAP-05-0013-P-FY06]
- University of Minnesota
Biofilms are surface-associated communities of microbes encompassed by an extracellular matrix. It is estimated that 80% of all bacterial infections involve biofilm formation, but the structure and regulation of biofilms are incompletely understood. Extracellular DNA (eDNA) is a major structural component in many biofilms of the pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, but its role is enigmatic. Here, we demonstrate that beta toxin, a neutral sphingomyelinase and a virulence factor of S. aureus, forms covalent cross-links to itself in the presence of DNA (we refer to this as biofilm ligase activity, independent of sphingomyelinase activity) producing an insoluble nucleoprotein matrix in vitro. Furthermore, we show that beta toxin strongly stimulates biofilm formation in vivo as demonstrated by a role in causation of infectious endocarditis in a rabbit model. Together, these results suggest that beta toxin cross-linking in the presence of eDNA assists in forming the skeletal framework upon which staphylococcal biofilms are established.
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