Gene expression in synthetic nasal medium. Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus prefers the human anterior nares as its habitat, but nothing is known about the nutritional situation in this ecological niche. Analysis of nasal secretions showed a complex mixture of nutrients at low concentration. Based on these findings a synthetic nasal medium (SNM) was composed, mimicking nasal secretions. We used microarrays in order to investigate pathways and expression patterns important in a synthetic medium mimicking nasal secretions compared to standard laboratory complex medium Overall design: Staphylococcus aureus USA300 was inoculated in complex medium (BM) or synthetic nasal medium (SNM) to an OD578nm of 0.005 and grown under aerobic conditions until OD578nm of 0.02. RNA was stabilized and extracted at this early growth phase and hybridization was made on Affymetrix microarrays. The aim was to identify genes which are important during growth under the limited conditions present during colonization of human nares