Abstract
Phenol-soluble modulins (PSMs) are responsible for regulating biofilm formation, persister cell formation, pmtR expression, host cell lysis, and anti-bacterial effects. To determine the effect of psm deletion on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, we investigated psm deletion mutants including Δpsmα, Δpsmβ, and Δpsmαβ. These mutants exhibited increased β-lactam antibiotic resistance to ampicillin and oxacillin that was shown to be caused by increased N-acetylmannosamine kinase (nanK) mRNA expression, which regulates persister cell formation, leading to changes in the pattern of phospholipid fatty acids resulting in increased anteiso-C15:0, and increased membrane hydrophobicity with the deletion of PSMs. When synthetic PSMs were applied to Δpsmα and Δpsmβ mutants, treatment of Δpsmα with PSMα1-4 and Δpsmβ with PSMβ1-2 restored the sensitivity to oxacillin and slightly reduced the biofilm formation. Addition of a single fragment showed that α1, α2, α3, and β2 had an inhibiting effect on biofilms in Δpsmα; however, β1 showed an enhancing effect on biofilms in Δpsmβ. This study demonstrates a possible reason for the increased antibiotic resistance in psm mutants and the effect of PSMs on biofilm formation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 115-122 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 28 Jan 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the Research Program to Solve Social Issues of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2017M3A9E4077234) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (NRF-2019M3E6A1103979 and NRF-2019R1F1A1058805). In addition, this work was also supported by the Polar Academic Program (PAP, PE20900). This paper was supported by the Konkuk University Researcher Fund in 2020.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 by The Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology.
Keywords
- Biofilm
- Fatty acid
- MRSA
- Persister cell
- Phenol-soluble modulins
- β-lactam antibiotic