Staphylococcal DNA Repair Is Required for Infection

To cause infection, must withstand damage caused by host immune defenses. However, the mechanisms by which staphylococcal DNA is damaged and repaired during infection are poorly understood. Using a panel of transposon mutants, we identified the operon as being important for the survival of in whole human blood. Mutants lacking were also attenuated for virulence in murine models of both systemic and skin infections. We then demonstrated that RexAB is a member of the AddAB family of helicase/nuclease complexes responsible for initiating the repair of DNA double-strand breaks. Using a fluorescent reporter system, we were able to show that neutrophils cause staphylococcal DNA double-strand breaks through reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by the respiratory burst, which are repaired by RexAB, leading to the induction of the mutagenic SOS response. We found that RexAB homologues in and also promoted the survival of these pathogens in human blood, suggesting that DNA double-strand break repair is required for Gram-positive bacteria to survive in host tissues. Together, these data demonstrate that DNA is a target of host immune cells, leading to double-strand breaks, and that the repair of this damage by an AddAB-family enzyme enables the survival of Gram-positive pathogens during infection. To cause infection, bacteria must survive attack by the host immune system. For many bacteria, including the major human pathogen , the greatest threat is posed by neutrophils. These immune cells ingest the invading organisms and try to kill them with a cocktail of chemicals that includes reactive oxygen species (ROS). The ability of to survive this attack is crucial for the progression of infection. However, it was not clear how the ROS damaged and how the bacterium repaired this damage. In this work, we show that ROS cause breaks in the staphylococcal DNA, which must be repaired by a two-protein complex known as RexAB; otherwise, the bacterium is killed, and it cannot sustain infection. This provides information on the type of damage that neutrophils cause and the mechanism by which this damage is repaired, enabling infection.