Pathology Commons^™

Identification Of Extracellular Dna-Binding Proteins In The Biofilm Matrix., Jeffrey S. Kavanaugh, Caralyn E. Flack, Jessica Lister, Erica B. Ricker, Carolyn B. Ibberson, Christian Jenul, Derek E. Moormeier, Elizabeth A. Delmain, Kenneth W. Bayles, Alexander R. Horswill

Journal Articles: Pathology and Microbiology

We developed a new approach that couples Southwestern blotting and mass spectrometry to discover proteins that bind extracellular DNA (eDNA) in bacterial biofilms. Using Staphylococcus aureus as a model pathogen, we identified proteins with known DNA-binding activity and uncovered a series of lipoproteins with previously unrecognized DNA-binding activity. We demonstrated that expression of these lipoproteins results in an eDNA-dependent biofilm enhancement. Additionally, we found that while deletion of lipoproteins had a minimal impact on biofilm accumulation, these lipoprotein mutations increased biofilm porosity, suggesting that lipoproteins and their associated interactions contribute to biofilm structure. For one of the lipoproteins, SaeP, we …