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Journal of Bacteriology, April 2009, p. 2051-2059, Vol. 191, No. 7
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00907-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Overexpression of MazFSa in Staphylococcus aureus Induces Bacteriostasis by Selectively Targeting mRNAs for Cleavage{triangledown}

Zhibiao Fu,# Sandeep Tamber, Guido Memmi, Niles P. Donegan, and Ambrose L. Cheung*

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755

Received 1 July 2008/ Accepted 10 January 2009

The role of chromosomally encoded toxin-antitoxin (TA) loci in bacterial physiology has been under debate, with the toxin proposed as either an inducer of bacteriostasis or a mediator of programmed cell death (PCD). We report here that ectopic expression of MazFSa, a toxin of the TA module from Staphylococcus aureus, led to a rapid decrease in CFU counts but most cells remained viable as determined by differential Syto 9 and propidium iodide staining after MazFSa induction. This finding suggested that the toxin MazFSa induced cell stasis rather than cell death. We also showed that MazFSa selectively cleaves cellular mRNAs in vivo, avoiding "important" transcripts such as recA, gyrB, and sarA mRNAs in MazFSa-induced cells, while these three mRNAs can be cleaved in vitro. The results of Northwestern blotting showed that both sarA and recA mRNAs bind strongly to a putative RNA-binding protein. These data suggest that S. aureus likely undergoes stasis by protecting selective mRNA with RNA-binding proteins upon the expression of MazFSa in vivo.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH 03755. Phone: (603) 650-1310. Fax: (603) 676-3355. E-mail: ambrose.cheung{at}dartmouth.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 23 January 2009.

# Present address: Microbial and Cell Culture Development, GlaxoSmithKline, UE0447C, 709 Swedeland Road, King of Prussia, PA 19406.

Journal of Bacteriology, April 2009, p. 2051-2059, Vol. 191, No. 7
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00907-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Zhu, L., Inoue, K., Yoshizumi, S., Kobayashi, H., Zhang, Y., Ouyang, M., Kato, F., Sugai, M., Inouye, M. (2009). Staphylococcus aureus MazF Specifically Cleaves a Pentad Sequence, UACAU, Which Is Unusually Abundant in the mRNA for Pathogenic Adhesive Factor SraP. J. Bacteriol. 191: 3248-3255 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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