Dentistry Commons^™

Streptococcus Mutans Lacking Sufcdsub Is Viable, But Displays Major Defects In Growth, Stress Tolerance Responses And Biofilm Formation, Kassapa Ellepola, Xiaochang Huang, Ryan P. Riley, Jacob P. Bitoun, Zezhang Tom Wen

School of Dentistry Faculty Publications

Streptococcus mutans appears to possess a sole iron-sulfur (Fe-S) cluster biosynthesis system encoded by the sufCDSUB cluster. This study was designed to examine the role of sufCDSUB in S. mutans physiology. Allelic exchange mutants deficient of the whole sufCDSUB cluster and in individual genes were constructed. Compared to the wild-type, UA159, the sufCDSUB-deficient mutant, Δsuf::kanr, had a significantly reduced growth rate, especially in medium with the absence of isoleucine, leucine or glutamate/glutamine, amino acids that require Fe-S clusters for biosynthesis and when grown with medium adjusted to pH 6.0 and under oxidative and nitrosative stress conditions. Relative to UA159, Δsuf::kanr …