The Skeletal Environment Dictates Staphylococcus aureus Virulence Responses and Mediates Metabolic Processes in Vivo
Potter, Aimee D
:
2019-08-26
Abstract
S. aureus is the leading cause of infectious death in the United States. Although it innocuously colonizes up to one-third of the world’s population, S. aureus is capable of infiltrating nearly every organ in the human body, leading to invasive infections with substantial morbidity and mortality. These facts suggest that S. aureus must have the metabolic flexibility to acquire or synthesize nutrients in these different environments. In order to characterize the metabolic programs used by S. aureus to survive in vivo, we conducted transposon sequencing (TnSeq) analysis in a murine osteomyelitis model. The resulting datasets and subsequent investigations have revealed key regulatory proteins involved in modulating hypoxic responses and generated a comprehensive picture of central metabolism in S. aureus in vivo during osteomyelitis. Collectively, these data elucidate metabolic programs required for invasive infection and demonstrate specific metabolic pathways as critical determinants of the host-pathogen interaction.