Daptomycin stimulon in Bacillus subtilis W168

Abstract of associated manuscript: Daptomycin is the first of a new class of cyclic lipopeptide antibiotics used against multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens. The proposed mechanism of action involves disruption of the functional integrity of the bacterial membrane in a Ca2+-dependent manner. We have used transcriptional profiling to demonstrate that treatment of Bacillus subtilis with daptomycin strongly induces the lia operon including the autoregulatory LiaRS two-component system (homologous to Staphylococcus aureus VraSR). The lia operon protects against daptomycin and deletion of liaH, encoding a phage shock protein A (PspA)-like protein, leads to 3-fold increased susceptibility. Since daptomycin interacts with the membrane, we tested mutants with altered membrane composition for effects on susceptibility. Deletion mutations of mprF (lacking lysyl-phosphatidylglycerol) or des (lipid desaturase) increased daptomycin susceptibility, whereas overexpression of MprF decreased susceptibility. Conversely, depletion of the cell for the anionic lipid phosphatidylglycerol led to increased resistance. Fluorescently-labeled daptomycin localized to the septa and in a helical pattern around the cell envelope and was delocalized upon depletion of phosphatidylglycerol. Together, these results indicate that the daptomycin-Ca2+ complex interacts preferentially with regions enriched in anionic phospholipids and leads to membrane stresses that can be ameliorated by PspA family proteins. Bacillus subtilis W168, WT (+DAP) vs. WT (-DAP). The experiment was conducted in triplicate using three independent total RNA preparations. For WT-rep1 and WT-rep2, daptomycin treated samples were labeled with Alexa Fluor 647 and untreated samples with Alexa Fluor 555. For WT-rep3, the daptomycin treated sample was labeled with Alexa Fluor 555 and the untreated sample with Alexa Fluor 647.