Phosphatidylinositol-Specific Phospholipase C Contributes to Survival of Staphylococcus aureus USA300 in Human Blood and Neutrophils
ABSTRACTStaphylococcus aureusis an important human pathogen that employs a large repertoire of secreted virulence factors to promote disease pathogenesis. Many strains ofS. aureuspossess aplcgene that encodes a phosphatidylinositol (PI)-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) capable of hydrolyzing PI and cleaving glycosyl-PI (GPI)-linked proteins from cell surfaces. Despite being secreted by virulent staphylococci, the contribution of PI-PLC to the capacity ofS. aureusto cause disease remains undefined. Our goal in these studies was to understand PI-PLC in the context ofS. aureusbiology. Among a collection of genetically diverse clinical isolates ofS. aureus, community-associated methicillin-resistantS. aureus(CA-MRSA) USA300 secreted the most PI-PLC. Screening a collection of two-component system (TCS) mutants ofS. aureus, we identified both theagrquorum-sensing system and the SrrAB TCS to be positive regulators ofplcgene expression. Real-time PCR and PI-PLC enzyme assays of the TCS mutants, coupled with SrrA promoter binding studies, demonstrated that SrrAB was the predominant transcriptional activator ofplc. Furthermore,plcregulation was linked to oxidative stress bothin vitroandin vivoin a SrrAB-dependent manner. A Δplcmutant in a CA-MRSA USA300 background exhibited a survival defect in human whole blood and in isolated neutrophils. However, the same mutant strain displayed no survival defect in murine models of infection or murine whole blood. Overall, these data identify potential links between bacterial responses to the host innate immune system and to oxidative stress and suggest how PI-PLC could contribute to the pathogenesis ofS. aureusinfections.