Triclosan- resistant small- colony variants of Staphylococcus aureus produce less capsule, less phenol- soluble modulins, and are attenuated in a Galleria mellonella model of infection

摘要

In recent work we identifed genes that confer the slow- growing and antibiotic- resistant small- colony variant (SCV) form of Staphylococcus aureus, as associated with the amount of capsule the bacteria produce. In this study we isolated a triclosan-resistant SCV (tr- SCV) and demonstrated that it produces significantly less capsule, an effect that appears to be mediated at the transcriptional stage. As with other SCVs, we found that the tr- SCV produces less toxins, and when compared to both a capsule and an Agr mutant we found the tr- SCV to be significantly attenuated in an insect model of infection.