Staphylococcus Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Staphylococcus, including details on mrsa, hospitals, infection, antibiotic resistance, superbugs.

Response of Staphylococcus aureus to salicylate challenge.

Riordan JT, Muthaiyan A, Van Voorhies W, Price CT, Graham JE, Wilkinson BJ, Gustafson JE

Microbiology Group, Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 30001 Dept. 3AF, Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001, USA.

Growth of Staphylococcus aureus with the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory salicylate reduces susceptibility of the organism to multiple antimicrobials. Transcriptome analysis revealed that growth of S. aureus with salicylate leads to the induction of genes involved with gluconate and formate metabolism and represses genes required for gluconeogenesis and glycolysis. In addition, salicylate induction upregulates two antibiotic target genes and downregulates a multidrug efflux pump gene repressor (mgrA) and sarR, which represses a gene (sarA) important for intrinsic antimicrobial resistance. We hypothesize that these salicylate-induced alterations jointly represent a unique mechanism that allows S. aureus to resist antimicrobial stress and toxicity.

Published 18 December 2006 in J Bacteriol, 189(1): 220-7.
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