| Title: | Specificity grouping of the accessory gene regulator quorum-sensing system of Staphylococcus epidermidis is linked to infection |
| Address: | "Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, The National Institutes of Health, 903 S. 4th Street, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Hamilton, MT 59840, USA" |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00203-003-0644-2 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0302-8933 (Print) 0302-8933 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Staphylococcus epidermidis represents the most frequent pathogen involved in nosocomial infections and infections of indwelling medical devices. The strain-to-strain variation of the gene encoding the quorum-sensing pheromone of S. epidermidis as well as the correlation between specificity groups and origin from infection were determined. The pro-pheromone gene was highly conserved and showed infrequent, non-synonymous, single-nucleotide polymorphisms that led to conservative amino acid exchanges only. Importantly, one specificity group was significantly more frequent among strains isolated from infection. The finding that quorum-sensing specificity groups are linked to infection demonstrates the relevance of quorum-sensing for virulence in this critical human pathogen and contributes to the scientific basis needed for the development of quorum-sensing-targeting drugs" |
| Keywords: | "Amino Acid Sequence Amino Acid Substitution/genetics Bacterial Proteins/*genetics/*physiology Base Sequence Cross Infection/microbiology DNA, Bacterial/chemistry/isolation & purification Genes, Bacterial Humans Molecular Epidemiology Molecular Sequence Da;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineCarmody, A B Otto, Michael eng Germany 2004/01/10 Arch Microbiol. 2004 Mar; 181(3):250-3. doi: 10.1007/s00203-003-0644-2. Epub 2004 Jan 9" |
