High-Throughput Mutagenesis Reveals a Role for Antimicrobial Resistance- and Virulence-Associated Mobile Genetic Elements in Staphylococcus aureus Host Adaptation
Xiaoliang Ba, Marta Matuszewska, Lajos Kalmár, Jingyan Fan, Geng Zou, Desirée Corander, Claire Raisen, Shaowen Li, Lu Li, Lucy A. Weinert, Alexander W. Tucker, Andrew J. Grant, Rui Zhou, Mark A. Holmes
Abstract
and is capable of rapidly readapting to human hosts while maintaining antibiotic resistance. Using high-throughput transposon mutagenesis, our study identified 26 and 47 genes important for MRSA CC398 survival in human and porcine blood, respectively. Two of the genes important for MRSA CC398 survival in porcine blood were located on mobile genetic elements (MGEs) carrying resistance or virulence genes. Our study shows that these MGEs carrying antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes could have a secondary function in bacterial survival in blood and may be important for blood infection and host adaptation.