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Excretion of cytoplasmic proteins in Staphylococcus is most likely not due to cell lysis

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Abstract

The excretion of cytoplasmic proteins (ECP) is a long-known phenomenon in bacteria and eukaryotes. So far, it was not possible to associate either a signal peptide-dependent or a signal peptide-independent pathway to ECP. Nevertheless 25 % of the proteins found in Staphylococcus aureus supernatants were cytoplasmic proteins. Because the excreted proteins do not possess a common motive, the most widespread opinion is that ECP is due to cell lysis. This explanation seems to be too easy since several indications imply that there exists a yet unknown mechanism for ECP. Certainly, the up-regulation of autolysins as well as decreased peptidoglycan cross-linking increased ECP. However, in recent years, several evidences arose that cell lysis is not the only reason for ECP. It seems that ECP is a part of the normal cell cycle of S. aureus as it turned out that ECP with several model proteins occurs mainly during cell growth. It has common features as proteins secreted via the Sec translocon and finally the excretion site is the cross wall of dividing cells.

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Abbreviations

Atl:

Mayor autolysin

CPs:

Cytoplasmic proteins

ECP:

Excretion of cytoplasmic proteins

FbaA:

Aldolase

GAPDH:

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase

Eno:

Enolase

LysM-L1,2 :

Lysin-rich cell wall binding motif

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Acknowledgments

We thank Daniela Eberhart and Sebastian Reichert for carefully reading the manuscript. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft: SFB766 to F.G.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microbial Genetics, Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine (IMIT), University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Patrick Ebner, Janina Rinker & Friedrich Götz

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  1. Patrick Ebner
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  2. Janina Rinker
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  3. Friedrich Götz
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Correspondence to Friedrich Götz.

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Communicated by M. Kupiec.

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Ebner, P., Rinker, J. & Götz, F. Excretion of cytoplasmic proteins in Staphylococcus is most likely not due to cell lysis. Curr Genet 62, 19–23 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294-015-0504-z

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