Increased production of penicillin-binding protein 2, increased detection of other penicillin-binding proteins, and decreased coagulase activity associated with glycopeptide resistance in Staphylococcus aureus.

The mechanism of glycopeptide resistance in the genus Staphylococcus is unknown. Since these antimicrobial compounds act by binding the peptidoglycan precursor terminus, the target of transglycosylase and transpeptidase enzymes, it was hypothesized that resistance might be mediated in Staphylococcus aureus by increased production or activity of these enzymes, commonly called penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs). To evaluate this possibility, glycopeptide-resistant mutants were prepared by passage of several clinical isolates of this species in nutrient broth containing successively increasing concentrations of the glycopeptide vancomycin or teicoplanin. Decreased coagulase activity and increased resistance to lysostaphin were uniformly present in the vancomycin-resistant mutants. Peptidoglycan cross-linking increased in one resistant isolate and decreased in two resistant isolates. The amounts of radioactive penicillin that bound to each PBP in susceptible and resistant strains were compared; PBP2 production was also evaluated by Western blotting. Increased penicillin labeling and production of PBP2 were found in all resistant derivatives selected by either vancomycin or teicoplanin. Moreover, the increase in PBP2 penicillin labeling occurred early in a series of vancomycin-selected derivatives and was strongly correlated (r > 0.9) with the increase in vancomycin and teicoplanin MIC. An increase in penicillin labeling also occurred, variably, in PBP1, PBP3, and/or PBP4. These data demonstrate a strong correlation between resistance to glycopeptides and increased PBP activity and/or production in S. aureus. Such an increase could allow PBPs to better compete with glycopeptides for the peptidoglycan precursor.

Genomic-sequence comparison of two unrelated isolates of the human gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori.

Helicobacter pylori, one of the most common bacterial pathogens of humans, colonizes the gastric mucosa, where it appears to persist throughout the host's life unless the patient is treated. Colonization induces chronic gastric inflammation which can progress to a variety of diseases, ranging in severity from superficial gastritis and peptic ulcer to gastric cancer and mucosal-associated lymphoma. Strain-specific genetic diversity has been proposed to be involved in the organism's ability to cause different diseases or even be beneficial to the infected host and to participate in the lifelong chronicity of infection. Here we compare the complete genomic sequences of two unrelated H. pylori isolates. This is, to our knowledge, the first such genomic comparison. H. pylori was believed to exhibit a large degree of genomic and allelic diversity, but we find that the overall genomic organization, gene order and predicted proteomes (sets of proteins encoded by the genomes) of the two strains are quite similar. Between 6 to 7% of the genes are specific to each strain, with almost half of these genes being clustered in a single hypervariable region.