ArticleNature microbiology2021
Staphylococcus epidermidis clones express Staphylococcus aureus-type wall teichoic acid to shift from a commensal to pathogen lifestyle.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Insertion sequence elements associated with Staphylococcus epidermidis evolution in persistent orthopaedic device-related infections.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Of Commensals and Opportunists: Genomics of Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci During Sequential Ear and Eye Infections in a Healthy Adult.MicrobiologyOpen · 2026Article
- The Evolution of Symbiosis inBiomolecules · 2026Review
- The New SH3b_T Domain Increases the Structural and Functional Variability Among SH3b-Like CBDs from Staphylococcal Phage Endolysins.Probiotics and antimicrobial proteins · 2025Article
- Commensal bacterial glycosylation at the interface of host-bacteria interactions.Gut microbes · 2025Review
- Differentiating Ocular Pathogenic Staphylococcus epidermidis Isolates Using a Human Corneal Epithelial Cell Coculture Model.Translational vision science & technology · 2025Article
- Antibody dependent complement activation is critical for boosting opsonophagocytosis of Staphylococcus epidermidis in an extremely preterm human whole blood model.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- [The role ofLin chuang er bi yan hou tou jing wai ke za zhi = Journal of clinical otorhinolaryngology head and neck surgery · 2025Review
- Colonizing Bacteria Aggravate Inflammation, Cytotoxicity and Immune Defense During Influenza A Virus Infection.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Chemoproteomics unveils Sofalcone targeting ribosomal proteins to inhibit protein synthesis in Staphylococcus aureus.Molecular biomedicine · 2025Article
- Review
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- Cryo-EM analysis ofScience advances · 2024Article
- Insights into the role of the respiratory tract microbiome in defense against bacterial pneumonia.Current opinion in microbiology · 2024Review
- The impact of oxygen content onFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Commensal production of a broad-spectrum and short-lived antimicrobial peptide polyene eliminates nasal Staphylococcus aureus.Nature microbiology · 2024Article
- InvasiveScience advances · 2023Article
- Cryptic susceptibility to penicillin/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations in emerging multidrug-resistant, hospital-adapted Staphylococcus epidermidis lineages.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Characterisation of neonatalMicrobial genomics · 2023Article
- Improved Genomic Prediction of Staphylococcus epidermidis Isolation Sources with a Novel Polygenic Score.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
20 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Most clonal lineages of Staphylococcus epidermidis are commensals present on human skin and in the nose. However, some globally spreading healthcare-associated and methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (HA-MRSE) clones are major causes of difficult-to-treat implant or bloodstream infections. The molecular determinants that alter the lifestyle of S. epidermidis have remained elusive, and their identification might provide therapeutic targets. We reasoned that changes in surface-exposed wall teichoic acid (WTA) polymers of S. epidermidis, which potentially shape host interactions, may be linked to differences between colonization and infection abilities of different clones. We used a combined epidemiological and functional approach to show that while commensal clones express poly-glycerolphosphate WTA, S. epidermidis multilocus sequence type 23, which emerged in the past 15 years and is one of the main infection-causing HA-MRSE clones, contains an accessory genetic element, tarIJLM, that leads to the production of a second, Staphylococcus aureus-type WTA (poly-ribitolphosphate (RboP)). Production of RboP-WTA by S. epidermidis impaired in vivo colonization but augmented endothelial attachment and host mortality in a mouse sepsis model. tarIJLM was absent from commensal human sequence types but was found in several other HA-MRSE clones. Moreover, RboP-WTA enabled S. epidermidis to exchange DNA with S. aureus via siphovirus bacteriophages, thereby creating a possible route for the inter-species exchange of methicillin resistance, virulence and colonization factors. We conclude that tarIJLM alters the lifestyle of S. epidermidis from commensal to pathogenic and propose that RboP-WTA might be a robust target for preventive and therapeutic interventions against MRSE infections.
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