Role of the LytSR two-component regulatory system in Staphylococcus lugdunensis biofilm formation and pathogenesis

Staphylococcus lugdunensis is a coagulase negative Staphylococcus, recognized as a virulent pathogen. It is responsible for a wide variety of infections, some of which being associated with biofilm production, such as implanted medical devices infections or endocarditis. However, little is known about S. lugdunensis virulence regulation. Two-component regulatory systems (TCS) play critical roles in bacterial adaptation, survival and virulence. Among them, LytSR is widely conserved, but has variable roles in different organisms, all being connected to metabolism or cell death and lysis into biofilms. Therefore, we investigated here the functions of LytSR in S. lugdunensis pathogenesis. Deletion of lytSR in S. lugdunensis DSM 4804 strain did not alter neither the susceptibility to Triton X-100 induced autolysis nor the death induced by antibiotics targeting cell wall synthesis. Interestingly, ΔlytSR biofilm was characterized by a lower biomass, a lack of tower structures and a higher rate of dead cells compared to the wild-type strain. Virulence towards Caenorhabditis elegans using slow-killing assay was significantly reduced for the mutant compared to the wild-type strain. In contrast, the deletion of lytSR had no effect on S. lugdunensis cytotoxicity towards the human keratinocyte cell line HaCaT. Transcriptional analyses conducted at mid- and late-exponential phases showed that lytSR deletion affected the expression of 286 genes. Most of them were involved in basic functions such as metabolism of amino acid, carbohydrates and nucleotides. Furthermore, LytSR appeared to be involved in the regulation of genes coding known or putative virulence and colonization factors, including the fibrinogen-binding protein Fbl, the major autolysin AtlL and the type VII secretion system. Overall, our data suggest that LytSR TCS is implicated in S. lugdunensis pathogenesis, through its involvement in biofilm formation and potentially by the control of genes encoding putative virulence factors. Transcriptome of S. lugdunensis ΔlytSR and WT strains was compared by DNA microarray at 6 h and 8 h of growth. Three replicates per strain were included.