Influence of Staphylococcus aureus Strain Background on Sa3int Phage Life Cycle Switches

asymptomatically colonizes the nasal cavity of mammals, but it is also a leading cause of life-threatening infections. Most human nasal isolates carry Sa3 phages, which integrate into the bacterial gene encoding a sphingomyelinase. The virulence factor-encoding genes carried by the Sa3-phages are hi...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Viruses 2022-11, Vol.14 (11), p.2471
Hauptverfasser: Rohmer, Carina, Dobritz, Ronja, Tuncbilek-Dere, Dilek, Lehmann, Esther, Gerlach, David, George, Shilpa Elizabeth, Bae, Taeok, Nieselt, Kay, Wolz, Christiane
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:asymptomatically colonizes the nasal cavity of mammals, but it is also a leading cause of life-threatening infections. Most human nasal isolates carry Sa3 phages, which integrate into the bacterial gene encoding a sphingomyelinase. The virulence factor-encoding genes carried by the Sa3-phages are highly human-specific, and most animal strains are Sa3 negative. Thus, both insertion and excision of the prophage could potentially confer a fitness advantage to . Here, we analyzed the phage life cycle of two Sa3 phages, Φ13 and ΦN315, in different phage-cured strains. Based on phage transfer experiments, strains could be classified into low (8325-4, SH1000, and USA300c) and high (MW2c and Newman-c) transfer strains. High-transfer strains promoted the replication of phages, whereas phage adsorption, integration, excision, or transcription was not significantly different between strains. RNASeq analyses of replication-deficient lysogens revealed no strain-specific differences in the CI/Mor regulatory switch. However, lytic genes were significantly upregulated in the high transfer strain MW2c Φ13 compared to strain 8325-4 Φ13. By transcriptional start site prediction, new promoter regions within the lytic modules were identified, which are likely targeted by specific host factors. Such host-phage interaction probably accounts for the strain-specific differences in phage replication and transfer frequency. Thus, the genetic makeup of the host strains may determine the rate of phage mobilization, a feature that might impact the speed at which certain strains can achieve host adaptation.
ISSN:1999-4915
1999-4915
DOI:10.3390/v14112471