Coordination of CcpA and CodY Regulators in Staphylococcus aureus USA300 Strains
Saugat Poudel, Ying Hefner, Richard Szubin, Anand V. Sastry, Ye Gao, Victor Nizet, Bernhard Ø. Palsson
Abstract
Staphylococcus aureus is a versatile pathogen with an expanding antibiotic resistance profile. The biology underlying its clinical success emerges from an interplay of many systems such as metabolism and gene regulatory networks. This work brings together models for these two systems to establish fundamental principles governing the regulation of S. aureus central metabolism and protein synthesis. Studies of these fundamental biological principles are often confined to model organisms such as Escherichia coli. However, expanding these models to pathogens can provide a framework from which complex and clinically important phenotypes such as virulence and antibiotic resistance can be better understood. Additionally, the expanded gene regulatory network model presented here can deconvolute the biology underlying other important phenotypes in this pathogen.