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Enzymatic regulations are central processes for the adaptation to changing environments. In the particular case of metallophore-dependent metal uptake, there is a need to quickly adjust the production of these metallophores to the metal level outside the cell, to avoid metal shortage or overload, as well as waste of metallophores. In Staphylococcus aureus, CntM catalyzes the last biosynthetic step in the production of staphylopine, a broad-spectrum metallophore, through the reductive condensation of a pathway intermediate (xNA) with pyruvate. Here, we describe the chemical synthesis of this intermediate, which was instrumental in the structural and functional characterization of CntM and confirmed its opine synthase properties. The three-dimensional structure of CntM was obtained in an "open" form, in the apo state or as a complex with substrate or product. The xNA substrate appears mainly stabilized by its imidazole ring through a π-π interaction with the side chain of Tyr240. Intriguingly, we found that metals exerted various and sometime antagonistic effects on the reaction catalyzed by CntM: zinc and copper are moderate activators at low concentration and then total inhibitors at higher concentration, whereas manganese is only an activator and cobalt and nickel are only inhibitors. We propose a model in which the relative affinity of a metal toward xNA and an inhibitory binding site on the enzyme controls activation, inhibition, or both as a function of metal concentration. This metal-dependent regulation of a metallophore-producing enzyme might also take place in vivo, which could contribute to the adjustment of metallophore production to the internal metal level.

Staphylococcus aureus expresses the Cnt system implicated in the active transport of trace metals by synthesizing (CntKLM) and exporting (CntE) staphylopine, a metallophore chelating metals and then taken up by an ABC-transporter (CntABCDF). This machinery is encoded in the cntKLMABCDFE operon, preceded by a non-coding region (PcntK) and containing an internal promoter region (PcntA). PcntK comprises a Fur box followed by a Zur box, a sRNA transcription start and a repeated region, while PcntA comprises a Fur box that overlaps a Zur box. We found that PcntK promoter activity is attenuated by the repeated sequence and strictly controlled by Fur or Zur binding to its respective target sequences. Interestingly, we discovered a cooperative regulation of the PcntA activity by both Fur and Zur binding to the Fur/Zur box, by identifying a tripartite complex with DNA. Repression of PcntA is less sensitive to metal concentration and therefore loosely repressed as compared to PcntK activity. Furthermore, the Cnt system is essential for the optimal import of zinc, thereby linking regulation and function of Cnt. Overall, our results highlight the need for fine and differential tuning of staphylopine biosynthesis and trafficking in order to efficiently respond to metal starvation and optimize metal recovery., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Metal uptake is vital for all living organisms. In metal scarce conditions a common bacterial strategy consists in the biosynthesis of metallophores, their export in the extracellular medium and the recovery of a metal-metallophore complex through dedicated membrane transporters. Staphylopine is a recently described metallophore distantly related to plant nicotianamine that contributes to the broad-spectrum metal uptake capabilities of Staphylococcus aureus. Here we characterize a four-gene operon (PA4837-PA4834) in Pseudomonas aeruginosa involved in the biosynthesis and trafficking of a staphylopine-like metallophore named pseudopaline. Pseudopaline differs from staphylopine with regard to the stereochemistry of its histidine moiety associated with an alpha ketoglutarate moiety instead of pyruvate. In vivo, the pseudopaline operon is regulated by zinc through the Zur repressor. The pseudopaline system is involved in nickel uptake in poor media, and, most importantly, in zinc uptake in metal scarce conditions mimicking a chelating environment, thus reconciling the regulation of the cnt operon by zinc with its function as the main zinc importer under these metal scarce conditions.

Heme is essential for several cellular key functions but is also toxic. Whereas most bacterial pathogens utilize heme as a metabolic cofactor and iron source, the impact of host heme during bacterial infection remains elusive. The opportunist pathogen Streptococcus agalactiae does not synthesize heme but still uses it to activate a respiration metabolism. Concomitantly, heme toxicity is mainly controlled by the HrtBA efflux transporter. Here we investigate how S. agalactiae manages heme toxicity versus benefits in the living host. Using bioluminescent bacteria and heme-responsive reporters for in vivo imaging, we show that the capacity of S. agalactiae to overcome heme toxicity is required for successful infection, particularly in blood-rich organs. Host heme is simultaneously required, as visualized by a generalized infection defect of a respiration-negative mutant. In S. agalactiae, HrtBA expression responds to an intracellular heme signal via activation of the two-component system HssRS. A hssRS promoter-driven intracellular luminescent heme sensor was designed to identify host compartments that supply S. agalactiae with heme. S. agalactiae acquires heme in heart, kidneys, and liver, but not in the brain. We conclude that S. agalactiae response to heme is organ-dependent, and its efflux may be particularly relevant in late stages of infection.

The Lmb protein of Streptococcus agalactiae is described as an adhesin that binds laminin, a component of the human extracellular matrix. In this study, we revealed a new role for this protein in zinc uptake. We also identified two Lmb homologs, AdcA and AdcAII, redundant binding proteins that combine with the AdcCB translocon to form a zinc-ABC transporter. Expression of this transporter is controlled by the zinc concentration in the medium through the zinc-dependent regulator AdcR. Triple deletion of lmb, adcA, and adcAII, or that of the adcCB genes, impaired growth and cell separation in a zinc-restricted environment. Moreover, we found that this Adc zinc-ABC transporter promotes S. agalactiae growth and survival in some human biological fluids, suggesting that it contributes to the infection process. These results indicated that zinc has biologically vital functions in S. agalactiae and that, under the conditions tested, the Adc/Lmb transporter constitutes the main zinc acquisition system of the bacterium., Importance: A zinc transporter, composed of three redundant binding proteins (Lmb, AdcA, and AdcAII), was characterized in Streptococcus agalactiae This system was shown to be essential for bacterial growth and morphology in zinc-restricted environments, including human biological fluids., (Copyright © 2016, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.)

Metal acquisition is a vital microbial process in metal-scarce environments, such as inside a host. Using metabolomic exploration, targeted mutagenesis, and biochemical analysis, we discovered an operon in Staphylococcus aureus that encodes the different functions required for the biosynthesis and trafficking of a broad-spectrum metallophore related to plant nicotianamine (here called staphylopine). The biosynthesis of staphylopine reveals the association of three enzyme activities: a histidine racemase, an enzyme distantly related to nicotianamine synthase, and a staphylopine dehydrogenase belonging to the DUF2338 family. Staphylopine is involved in nickel, cobalt, zinc, copper, and iron acquisition, depending on the growth conditions. This biosynthetic pathway is conserved across other pathogens, thus underscoring the importance of this metal acquisition strategy in infection., (Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.)

In human pathogenic bacteria, nickel is required for the activation of two enzymes, urease and [NiFe]-hydrogenase, necessary for host infection. Acquisition of Ni(II) is mediated by either permeases or ABC-importers, the latter including a subclass that involves an extracytoplasmic nickel-binding protein, Ni-BP. This study reports on the structure of three Ni-BPs from a diversity of human pathogens and on the existence of three new nickel-binding motifs. These are different from that previously described for Escherichia coli Ni-BP NikA, known to bind nickel via a nickelophore, and indicate a variegated ligand selectivity for Ni-BPs. The structures are consistent with ligand affinities measured in solution by calorimetry and challenge the hypothesis of a general requirement of nickelophores for nickel uptake by canonical ABC importers. Phylogenetic analyses showed that Ni-BPs have different evolutionary origins and emerged independently from peptide-binding proteins, possibly explaining the promiscuous behavior of this class of Ni(II) carriers., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Human intoxication or infection due to bacterial food contamination constitutes an economic challenge and a public health problem. Information on the in situ distribution and expression of pathogens responsible for this risk is to date lacking, largely because of technical bottlenecks in detecting signals from minority bacterial populations within a complex microbial and physicochemical ecosystem. We simulated the contamination of a real high-risk cheese with a natural food isolate of Staphylococcus aureus, an enterotoxin-producing pathogen responsible for food poisoning. To overcome the problem of a detection limit in a solid matrix, we chose to work with a fluorescent reporter (superfolder green fluorescent protein) that would allow spatiotemporal monitoring of S. aureus populations and targeted gene expression. The combination of complementary techniques revealed that S. aureus localizes preferentially on the cheese surface during ripening. Immunochemistry and confocal laser scanning microscopy enabled us to visualize, in a single image, dairy bacteria and pathogen populations, virulence gene expression, and the toxin produced. This procedure is readily applicable to other genes of interest, other bacteria, and different types of food matrices., (Copyright © 2014, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.)

Metals are common enzymatic cofactors, and their acquisition must be assured under the various conditions encountered in the host. Although some strategies for acquisition of common metals such as iron and manganese have been elucidated, little is known about the conditions and mechanisms used to capture trace metals. Nickel is a transition metal required as a cofactor for several bacterial enzymes, including urease. Staphylococcus aureus does express a nickel ABC transporter, Nik, which functions in metal-replete medium and is necessary for nickel urease activity and urinary tract colonization. In this work, we identified a novel cobalt and nickel transporter, which we named Cnt (previously annotated Opp1), in the major opportunistic pathogen S. aureus. Metal transport activity was revealed by growing cells in a chemically defined medium devoid of metals. Zinc specifically inhibits Cnt-mediated nickel and cobalt uptake, on both functional and transcriptional levels. Mortality due to S. aureus cnt mutant in systemic infection and colonization of the bladder and kidneys in ascending urinary tract infection model were reduced compared to the parent strain. This study identifies a novel S. aureus trace metal transporter and its restricted conditions of activity, and establishes its role in infection., (© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

Heme, an iron-containing porphyrin, is the prosthetic group for numerous key cellular enzymatic and regulatory processes. Many bacteria encode the biosynthetic enzymes needed for autonomous heme production. Remarkably, however, numerous other bacteria lack a complete heme biosynthesis pathway, yet encode heme-requiring functions. For such heme-auxotrophic bacteria (HAB), heme or porphyrins must be captured from the environment. Functional studies, aided by genomic analyses, provide insight into the HAB lifestyle, how they acquire and manage heme, and the uses of heme that make it worthwhile, and sometimes necessary, to capture this bioactive molecule., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Using an experimental approach, we investigated the RNome of the pathogen Staphylococcus aureus to identify 30 small RNAs (sRNAs) including 14 that are newly confirmed. Among the latter, 10 are encoded in intergenic regions, three are generated by premature transcription termination associated with riboswitch activities, and one is expressed from the complementary strand of a transposase gene. The expression of four sRNAs increases during the transition from exponential to stationary phase. We focused our study on RsaE, an sRNA that is highly conserved in the bacillales order and is deleterious when over-expressed. We show that RsaE interacts in vitro with the 5' region of opp3A mRNA, encoding an ABC transporter component, to prevent formation of the ribosomal initiation complex. A previous report showed that RsaE targets opp3B which is co-transcribed with opp3A. Thus, our results identify an unusual case of riboregulation where the same sRNA controls an operon mRNA by targeting two of its cistrons. A combination of biocomputational and transcriptional analyses revealed a remarkably coordinated RsaE-dependent downregulation of numerous metabolic enzymes involved in the citrate cycle and the folate-dependent one-carbon metabolism. As we observed that RsaE accumulates transiently in late exponential growth, we propose that RsaE functions to ensure a coordinate downregulation of the central metabolism when carbon sources become scarce.

The oligopeptide transport systems Opp belong to the nickel/peptide/opine PepT subfamily of ABC-transporters. The opportunist pathogen Staphylococcus aureus encodes four putative Opps and one orphean substrate binding protein Opp5A. Here, we report that the Opp2 permease complex (Opp2BCDF) and Opp5A are involved in nickel uptake and then renamed them NikBCDE and NikA respectively. S. aureus carries also a high-affinity nickel transporter NixA belonging to the NiCoT family of secondary transporters. The activity of these two nickel transporters determine that of urease, a multimeric nickel-dependent enzyme mainly involved in the neutralization of acidic environments. However, only the Nik system was responsible for the neutralization and deposit of pH-dependent crystals in human urine. Inactivation of the nik genes affected bacterial colonization of mouse urinary tract, as well as the 50% infective dose levels compared with the parental and nixA strains. Finally, complementation of the nik mutations restored bacterial colonization. Together, our results suggest a role for the Nik system in the urinary tract infection by S. aureus, probably due to the urease-mediated pH increase of the urine., (© 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

Cheese is a complex and dynamic microbial ecosystem characterized by the presence of a large variety of bacteria, yeasts, and molds. Some microorganisms, including species of lactobacilli or lactococci, are known to contribute to the organoleptic quality of cheeses, whereas the presence of other microorganisms may lead to spoilage or constitute a health risk. Staphylococcus aureus is recognized worldwide as an important food-borne pathogen, owing to the production of enterotoxins in food matrices. In order to study enterotoxin gene expression during cheese manufacture, we developed an efficient procedure to recover total RNA from cheese and applied a robust strategy to study gene expression by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). This method yielded pure preparations of undegraded RNA suitable for RT-qPCR. To normalize RT-qPCR data, expression of 10 potential reference genes was investigated during S. aureus growth in milk and in cheese. The three most stably expressed reference genes during cheese manufacture were ftsZ, pta, and gyrB, and these were used as internal controls for RT-qPCR of the genes sea and sed, encoding staphylococcal enterotoxins A and D, respectively. Expression of these staphylococcal enterotoxin genes was monitored during the first 72 h of the cheese-making process, and mRNA data were correlated with enterotoxin production.

Staphylococcus aureus RN6390 presents a diauxic growth in milk, due to amino acid limitation. Inactivation of the oligopeptide permease Opp3 (dedicated to the nitrogen nutrition of the strain) not only affects the growth of the strain but also results in reduced expression levels of three major extracellular proteases.

Oligopeptides internalized by oligopeptide permease (Opp) transporters play key roles in bacterial nutrition, signaling, and virulence. To date, two opp operons, opp-1 and opp-2, have been identified in Staphylococcus aureus. Systematic in silico analysis of 11 different S. aureus genomes revealed the existence of two new opp operons, opp-3 and opp-4, plus an opp-5A gene encoding a putative peptide-binding protein. With the exception of opp-4, the opp operons were present in all S. aureus strains. Within a single strain, the different opp operons displayed little sequence similarity and distinct genetic organization. Transcriptional studies showed that opp-1, opp-2, opp-3, and opp-4 operons were polycistronic and that opp-5A is monocistronic. We designed a minimal chemically defined medium for S. aureus RN6390 and showed that all opp genes were expressed but at different levels. Where tested, OppA protein production paralleled transcriptional profiles. opp-3, which encodes proteins most similar to known peptide transport proteins, displayed the highest expression level and was the only transporter to be regulated by specific amino acids, tyrosine and phenylalanine. Defined deletion mutants in one or several peptide permeases were constructed and tested for their capacity to grow in peptide-containing medium. Among the four putative Opp systems, Opp-3 was the only system able to provide oligopeptides for growth, ranging in length from 3 to 8 amino acids. Dipeptides were imported exclusively by DtpT, a proton-driven di- and tripeptide permease. These data provide a first complete inventory of the peptide transport systems opp and dtpT of S. aureus. Among them, the newly identified Opp-3 appears to be the main Opp system supplying the cell with peptides as nutritional sources.