HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Doern, C. D. Articles by Reid, S. D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Doern, C. D. Articles by Reid, S. D. Agricola Articles by Doern, C. D. Articles by Reid, S. D.

Biofilm formation by group A Streptococcus: a role for the streptococcal regulator of virulence (Srv) and streptococcal cysteine protease (SpeB)

Christopher D. Doern^1,

Amity L. Roberts^1,

¹ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA
² Salem College, Winston-Salem, NC 27101, USA
³ Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
⁴ Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, School of Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA

Correspondence
Sean D. Reid
sreid{at}wfubmc.edu

Recently, biofilms have become a topic of interest in the study of the human pathogen group A Streptococcus (GAS). In this study, we sought to learn more about the make-up of these structures and gain insight into biofilm regulation. Enzymic studies indicated that biofilm formation by GAS strain MGAS5005 required an extracellular protein and DNA component(s). Previous results indicated that inactivation of the transcriptional regulator Srv in MGAS5005 resulted in a significant decrease in virulence. Here, inactivation of Srv also resulted in a significant decrease in biofilm formation under both static and flow conditions. Given that production of the extracellular cysteine protease SpeB is increased in the srv mutant, we tested the hypothesis that increased levels of active SpeB may be responsible for the reduction in biofilm formation. Western immunoblot analysis indicated that SpeB was absent from MGAS5005 biofilms. Complementation of MGAS5005srv restored the biofilm phenotype and eliminated the overproduction of active SpeB. Inhibition of SpeB with E64 also restored the MGAS5005srv biofilm to wild-type levels.

These authors contributed equally to this work.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. H. Nobbs, R. J. Lamont, and H. F. Jenkinson Streptococcus Adherence and Colonization Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev., September 1, 2009; 73(3): 407 - 450. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]