Published online Apr 26, 2022. doi: 10.5495/wjcid.v12.i1.20
Peer-review started: September 2, 2021
First decision: November 22, 2021
Revised: December 3, 2021
Accepted: February 12, 2022
Article in press: February 12, 2022
Published online: April 26, 2022
Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a primary cause of skin/soft tissue infections. Biofilm formation is a key component of S. aureus pathogenesis. Thus, an understanding of what regulates biofilm formation in S. aureus is important.
We were interested in characterizing two open reading frames that we thought were tied to biofilm formation in S. aureus.
Determine if mutations in the brpR and brpS genes affected biofilm formation and what the respective proteins had homologies with.
We used biofilm assays and quantitative real-time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis to test brpR and brpS mutants compared to the parent strain of S. aureus. Bioinformatic tools were used to determine what roles the BrpR and BrpS proteins may play in S. aureus cells.
The biofilm and qRT-PCR analyses demonstrated that mutations in the brpR and brpS genes affected biofilm formation in S. aureus and led to transcriptional differences in key biofilm-related genes as compared to the parent strain. Further, the BrpR and BrpS proteins share homologies with proteins involved in late-stage competence in streptococcal species.
BrpR/BrpS are likely a new two-component system which regulates biofilm formation in S. aureus.
A better understanding of a new regulator of S. aureus biofilm formation has been identified.