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The cytoplasmic loops of AgrC contribute to the quorum-sensing activity of Staphylococcus aureus

  • Microbial Pathogenesis and Host-Microbe Interaction
  • Published:
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Abstract

In Staphylococcus aureus, the accessory gene regulator (agr) quorum-sensing system is thought to play an important role in biofilm formation. The histidine kinase AgrC is one of the agr system components and activated by the self-generated auto-inducing peptide (AIP), which is released continuously into the extracellular environment during bacterial growth. The extracellular loops (Extra-loops) of AgrC are crucial for AIP binding. Here, we reported that the cytoplasmic loops (Cyto-loops) of AgrC are also involved in Agr activity. We identified S. aureus ST398 clinical isolates containing a naturally occurring single amino acid substitution (lysine to isoleucine) at position 73 of an AgrC Cyto-loop that exhibited significantly stronger biofilm formation and decreased Agr activity compared to the wild-type strain. A constructed strain containing the K73I point mutation in AgrC Cyto-loop continued to show a growth dependent induction of the agr system, although the growth dependent induction was delayed by about 6 h compared to the wild-type. In addition, a series of strains containing deletion mutants of the AgrC Cyto- and Extra-loops were constructed and revealed that the removal of the two Cyto-loops and Extra-loops 2 and 3 totally abolished the Agr activity and the growth-dependence on the agr system induction. Remarkably, the Extra-loop 1 deletion did not affect the Agr activity. In conclusion, the AgrC Cyto-loops play a crucial role in the S. aureus quorum-sensing activity.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 81873957, 81671975 to ML, 81772139 to QL), Shanghai Rising-Star Program (20QA140-5900, QL), Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology (grant 20ZR1432800, QL).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, RenJi Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200127, P. R. China

    Qian Huang, Yihui Xie, Ziyu Yang, Danhong Cheng, Lei He, Hua Wang, Qian Liu & Min Li

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  1. Qian Huang
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  2. Yihui Xie
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  3. Ziyu Yang
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  4. Danhong Cheng
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  7. Qian Liu
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  8. Min Li
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Correspondence to Qian Liu or Min Li.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest for the manuscript.

Author Contributions

QH and YX did all the experiments except RT-PCR which was done by DC. ZY did the biofilm assay for NCTC8325. LM and LQ supervised research and wrote the manuscript. LH, HW, LM and LQ conceived the study and analyzed results. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Huang, Q., Xie, Y., Yang, Z. et al. The cytoplasmic loops of AgrC contribute to the quorum-sensing activity of Staphylococcus aureus. J Microbiol. 59, 92–100 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-021-0274-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-021-0274-x

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