Life Sciences Commons^™

Staphylococcus Aureus Response To Long Chain Antimicrobial Fatty Acids, Benjamin Arsic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Staphylococcus aureus is a common pathogen that has the ability to infect virtually every tissue and organ system of the body. Despite its propensity to cause invasive infection, S. aureus is also a commensal organism, asymptomatically colonizing ~25% of the population. Much research has gone into resolving this paradox, focusing on both human and bacterial factors that may contribute to colonization. Antimicrobial fatty acids present on the skin and in the nasal mucosa are important components of the innate immune system, and thus we undertook to further understand how S. aureus responds to these fatty acids, and how this response …

The Role And Regulation Of Nsars: A Cell-Envelope Stress Sensing Two-Component System In Staphylococcus Aureus, Stacey Lynn Kolar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

S. aureus has 16 predicted two-component systems (TCS) that respond to a range of environmental stimuli, and allow for adaptation to stresses. Of these 16, three have no known function, and are not homologous to any other TCS found in closely related organisms. NsaRS is one such element, and belongs to the intramembrane-sensing histidine kinase (IM-HK) family, which is conserved within the Firmicutes. The regulators are defined by a small sensing domain within their histidine kinase, suggesting that they do not sense external signals, but stress in or at the membrane. Our characterization of NsaRS in this work reveals …