Mannitol utilisation is required for protection of Staphylococcus aureus from human skin antimicrobial fatty acids.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 23861785.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0067698 and PMC identifier 3701532.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Mannitol (Mtl) fermentation, with the subsequent production of acid, is a species signature of Staphylococcus aureus, and discriminates it from most other members of the genus. Inactivation of the gene mtlD, encoding Mtl-1-P dehydrogenase was found to markedly reduce survival in the presence of the antimicrobial fatty acid, linoleic acid. We demonstrate that the sugar alcohol has a potentiating action for this membrane-acting antimicrobial. Analysis of cellular metabolites revealed that, during exponential growth, the mtlD mutant accumulated high levels of Mtl and Mtl-P. The latter metabolite was not detected in its isogenic parent strain or a deletion mutant of the entire mtlABFD operon. In addition, the mtlD mutant strain exhibited a decreased MIC for H2O2, however virulence was unaffected in a model of septic arthritis.
Medical subject headings
- Bacterial Proteins
- Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
- Mannitol
- Skin
- Staphylococcus aureus
- Sugar Alcohol Dehydrogenases