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J. Bacteriol. doi:10.1128/JB.01635-06
Copyright (c) 2006, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Colony Spreading in Staphylococcus aureus

From the Laboratory of Microbiology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-1, 7-Chome, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: sekimizu{at}mol.f.u-tokyo.ac.jp.

	Abstract

Wild type Staphylococcus aureus rapidly expands on the surface of soft agar plates. The rate of expansion and the shape of the resultant giant colonies were distinct for different strains of laboratory stocks and clinical isolates. The colony spreading abilities did not correlate with the biofilm forming abilities in these strains. Insertional disruption of the dltABCD operon, which functions at the step of D-alanine addition to teichoic acids, and the tagO gene, which is responsible for the synthesis of wall teichoic acids, decreased the colony spreading ability. The results indicate that wall teichoic acids and D-alanylation of teichoic acids are required for colony spreading.

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