(Springer Nature, 2018) Villanueva San Martín, Maite; García Martínez, Begoña; Valle Turrillas, Jaione; Rapún Araiz, Beatriz; Ruiz de los Mozos Aliaga, Igor; Solano Goñi, Cristina; Martí, Miguel; Penadés, José R.; Toledo Arana, Alejandro; Lasa Uzcudun, Íñigo; IdAB. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología / Agrobioteknologiako Institutua
Bacteria use two-component systems (TCSs) to sense and respond to environmental
changes. The core genome of the major human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus encodes 16
TCSs, one of which (WalRK) is essential. Here we show that S. aureus can be deprived of its
complete sensorial TCS network and still survive under growth arrest conditions similarly to
wild-type bacteria. Under replicating conditions, however, the WalRK system is necessary
and sufficient to maintain bacterial growth, indicating that sensing through TCSs is mostly
dispensable for living under constant environmental conditions. Characterization of S. aureus
derivatives containing individual TCSs reveals that each TCS appears to be autonomous and
self-sufficient to sense and respond to specific environmental cues, although some level of
cross-regulation between non-cognate sensor-response regulator pairs occurs in vivo. This
organization, if confirmed in other bacterial species, may provide a general evolutionarily
mechanism for flexible bacterial adaptation to life in new niches.
