e. ampicillin, gentamicin, sulfa/trimethoprim, rifampicin, tetracycline, amoxy/clavulan, cephalotin, clindamycin, enrofloxacin, fusidic acid and oxacillin. No change in MIC values was observed when the wild type S. aureus and L. monocytogenes and the corresponding response regulator

mutants were compared (data not shown). Thus, as opposed to the CovRS TCS, HssR/RR23 from S. aureus and L. monocytogenes do not seem to sense other types of stress. The results for RR23 correspond with previous experiments, showing no stress phenotype for an rr23 mutant [22]. Discussion In the present study, we investigated how the antimicrobial peptide, plectasin, affects two human pathogens. Our results indicate that plectasin and another defensin, eurocin, do not AZD8931 solubility dmso perturb the S. aureus and L. monocytogenes membrane, but differentially affect the Dinaciclib molecular weight bacterial survival. These results are in agreement with recent findings, which show that plectasin does not compromise membrane integrity [6, 12]. However, the non-defensins, novicidin and protamine did lead to increased leakage, implying that the antimicrobial activity of these peptides involves disruptions of the bacterial membranes (Figure 1). To identify genes involved in resistance to plectasin, we screened transposon Selleckchem Danusertib mutant libraries of L. monocytogenes and S. aureus. We were unable to identify any L. monocytogenes

mutants more resistant to the peptide compared to wild type. The L. monocytogenes wild-type is more tolerant to plectasin (MIC >64 μg/ml) compared to the S. aureus wild type (MIC = 8-16 μg/ml), which might explain the difficulties in obtaining L. monocytogenes mutants with decreased sensitivity [[6, 7], Thalidomide this work]. Four isolated S. aureus mutants, more resistant to plectasin, had the transposon element inserted in the response regulator hssR that is part of a TCS, HssRS,

involved in sensing heme concentrations [14]. A primary mechanism by which bacterial cells respond to changes in the environment is through the action of TCSs. TCSs typically consist of a membrane-bound histidine kinase that responds to environmental signals by undergoing autophosphorylation followed by transfer of the phosphoryl group to the regulator [23]. During contact with a host, S. aureus acquire heme as iron source, but surplus heme can be toxic. The HssRS system is important for sensing the level of heme, and for activating the ABC transporter system HrtAB, which protects the bacteria against heme-mediated damage [16, 17]. Changes in iron availability are an environmental signal indicative of mammalian host-pathogen interaction and the HssRS TCS seems to be important for S. aureus to sense and respond to heme as a component of vertebrate blood [24, 14]. Our results reveal that a mutation in hssR increases the resistance of S. aureus to two defensin-like HDPs, suggesting that the mutation of hssR leads to enhanced bacterial resistance to immune clearance.

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