Asunto(s)
Infección Hospitalaria/epidemiología , Brotes de Enfermedades , Enterococcus faecium/efectos de los fármacos , Infecciones por Bacterias Grampositivas/epidemiología , Resistencia a la Vancomicina , Proteínas Bacterianas/genética , Infección Hospitalaria/microbiología , Enterococcus faecium/genética , Infecciones por Bacterias Grampositivas/microbiología , Hospitales Universitarios , Humanos , Suecia/epidemiologíaRESUMEN
Expression of specific adhesive properties by bacteria in general seems to be regulated to fit the environmental conditions. An example is the transcriptional regulation of digalactoside-specific binding by uropathogenic strains of Escherichia coli. The fimbrial structures (pili) on the bacterial surface carry the adhesin and are present during growth at 37 degrees C but are not produced by cells at lower temperatures, such as 25 degrees C. Thermoregulation of expression is due to temperature-dependent transcription of a regulatory cistron in the pilus-adhesin gene cluster. We have now identified and characterized a new regulatory locus (drdX) and show that a histone-like bacterial protein has an important role in this novel example of thermoregulation of transcription.