SxsA, a novel surface protein mediating cell aggregation and adhesive biofilm formation of Staphylococcus xylosus

Biofilm formation of staphylococci has been an emerging field of research for many years. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are still not fully understood and vary widely between species and strains. The aim of this study was to identify new effectors impacting biofilm formation of two Staphylococcus xylosus strains. We identified a novel surface protein conferring cell aggregation, adherence to abiotic surfaces, and biofilm formation. The S. xylosus surface protein A (SxsA) is a large protein occurring in variable sizes. It lacks sequence similarity to other staphylococcal surface proteins but shows similar structural domain organization and functional features. Upon deletion of sxsA, adherence of S. xylosus strain TMW 2.1523 to abiotic surfaces was completely abolished and significantly reduced in TMW 2.1023. Macro‐ and microscopic aggregation assays further showed that TMW 2.1523 sxsA mutants exhibit reduced cell aggregation compared with the wildtype. Comparative genomic analysis revealed that sxsA is part of the core genome of S. xylosus, Staphylococcus paraxylosus, and Staphylococcus nepalensis and additionally encoded in a small group of Staphylococcus cohnii and Staphylococcus saprophyticus strains. This study provides insights into protein‐mediated biofilm formation of S. xylosus and identifies a new cell wall‐associated protein influencing cell aggregation and biofilm formation. This paper describes a novel surface protein of Staphylococcus xylosus which was named SxsA and found to mediate cellular aggregation and biofilm formation. The importance of the protein in these processes was evaluated by generation of knockout mutants. Thereby mutant strains showed a clearly distinct phenotype to wildtype strains.