Caister Academic Press

Genetic Regulation

Markus Bischoff and Pascale Romby
from: Staphylococcus: Genetics and Physiology (Edited by: Greg A. Somerville). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2016) Pages: 301-334.

Abstract

The ability of Stapylococcus aureus to accurately respond to changing environments is one of the prerequisites for its success as a versatile human pathogen. This bacterium is equipped with an armamentarium of virulence factors that facilitate adaptation to nearly all ecological niches within a host. In addition, this armamentarium allows S. aureus to counteract most of the immune response mechanisms used by the host to combat the invading pathogen. Regulation of this armamentarium is carried out by at least 112 transcription factors than can be divided into 36 regulatory families. The largest families of transcription factors found in S. aureus are one-component systems such as MarR-type, GntR/DeoR-type, and Xre-type of regulators, and two-component system response regulators. Alternative sigma factors, the third most common class of proteins involved in bacterial signal transduction, are underrepresented in S. aureus. Notably, less than half of S. aureus transcription factors have been functionally characterized, suggesting that our understanding of the regulatory network utilized by this pathogen to adapt to a changing environment is incomplete read more ...
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