Unveiling the fructose metabolism system in Staphylococcus aureus: insights into the regulatory role of FruR and the FruRKT operon in bacterial fitness.
BMC Microbiol
; 24(1): 13, 2024 Jan 04.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38177984
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The utilization of fructose as a carbon source and energy provider plays a crucial role in bacterial metabolism. Additionally, fructose metabolism directly impacts the pathogenicity and virulence of certain pathogenic microorganisms.RESULTS:
In this study, we report the discovery of a fructose phosphotransferase system (PTS) in S. aureus. This system comprises three genes, namely fruR, fruK, and fruT, which are co-located in an operon that is indispensable for fructose utilization in S. aureus. Our findings confirm that these three genes are transcribed from a single promoter located upstream of the fruRKT operon. The fruR gene encodes a DeoR-type transcriptional regulator, designated as FruR, which represses the expression of the fruRKT operon by direct binding to its promoter region. Significantly, our experimental data demonstrate that the fruRKT operon can be induced by fructose, suggesting a potential regulatory mechanism involving intracellular fructose-1-phosphate as a direct inducer. Furthermore, we conducted RNA-seq analysis to investigate the specificity of FruR regulation in S. aureus, revealing that the fruRKT operon is predominantly regulated by FruR.CONCLUSIONS:
In summary, this study has uncovered a fructose phosphotransferase system (PTS) in S. aureus, highlighting the essential role of the fruR, fruK, and fruT genes in fructose utilization. We confirmed their co-location within an operon and established FruR as a key regulator by binding to the operon's promoter. Importantly, we demonstrated that fructose can induce this operon, possibly through intracellular fructose-1-phosphate. Our identification of this PTS system represents the initial characterization of a fructose metabolism system in S. aureus.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Staphylococcus aureus
/
Proteínas Bacterianas
Tipo de estudio:
Prognostic_studies
Idioma:
En
Revista:
BMC Microbiol
/
BMC microbiol
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BMC microbiology
Asunto de la revista:
MICROBIOLOGIA
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
China