A single transcriptional regulator is crucial for the adaptation of Staphylococcus aureus to diverse niches.
11 affiliations
- 1Unit of Genetics and Animal Breeding, Centre of Biological Sciences, Department for Biological Sciences and Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine , 1210 Vienna, Austria.
- 2Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) , 1220 Vienna, Austria.
- 3Unit of Microbiology, Center of Pathobiology, Department for Biological Sciences and Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine , 1210 Vienna, Austria.
- 4The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology , Edinburgh, EH25 9RG, UK.
- 5Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of South Florida , Tampa, FL 33620-5150, USA.
- 6Center for Antimicrobial Resistance, University of South Florida , Tampa, FL 33620-5150, USA.
- 7Unit of Pathology, Center of Pathobiology, Department for Biological Sciences and Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine , 1210 Vienna, Austria.
- 8Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Universität Innsbruck , 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
- 9Faculty of Food Technology, Food Safety and Ecology, University of Donja Gorica , 81000 Podgorica, Montenegro.
- 10Animal & Bioscience Department, Teagasc, Grange, Dunsany, Co. Meath , C15 PW93, Ireland.
- 11Division of Microbiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München , 80539 Munich, Germany.
Abstract
Adaptation of bacterial pathogens to new hosts often involves the exchange of mobile genetic elements, or generally the highly variable accessory genome. However, adaptation to different niches is often plastic, mediated by conserved pathways in the core genome. The general stress response of most Gram-positive bacteria is a classic case of adaptive plasticity and mediated primarily by the alternative sigma factor B (SigB), a transcriptional regulator. In Staphylococcus aureus, however, sigma factor B appears to have been co-opted to regulate the switch between intracellular and extracellular niches. In the milk-rich extracellular niche of the bovine udder, low sigma factor B activity appears advantageous: during persistent bovine mastitis, narrowly adapted strains entirely deficient in sigma factor B have evolved repeatedly from phenotypically plastic sigma factor B-wild-type strains through various mutations. As we show by transfer of both natural bovine isolates and genetically engineered S. aureus strains from a complex medium to a milk-rich medium, this genetic assimilation is driven by the cost of phenotypic plasticity. Compared with mutated sigma factor B-deficient strains, plastic strains show long time lags in adapting to milk and slower subsequent growth. Overall, we show how a master regulator in the core genome can drive host-specific niche adaptation.
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BibTeX
@article{vogl2026single,
title = {{A single transcriptional regulator is crucial for the adaptation of Staphylococcus aureus to diverse niches.}},
author = {Claus Vogl and Lynette C Mikula and Helene Marbach and Katharina Mayer-Weihrauch and Sebastian Herndler and Leonie Breitschopf and Amy C Pickering and Mary-Elizabeth Jobson and Adriana Cabal Rosel and Nora Dinhopl and Igor Loncaric and Werner Ruppitsch and Lindsey N Shaw and Orla M Keane and J Ross Fitzgerald and Monika Ehling-Schulz and Simon Heilbronner and Tom Grunert},
journal = {Proceedings. Biological sciences},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1098/rspb.2026.1930},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42869475},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A single transcriptional regulator is crucial for the adaptation of Staphylococcus aureus to diverse niches.
AU - Claus Vogl
AU - Lynette C Mikula
AU - Helene Marbach
AU - Katharina Mayer-Weihrauch
AU - Sebastian Herndler
AU - Leonie Breitschopf
AU - Amy C Pickering
AU - Mary-Elizabeth Jobson
AU - Adriana Cabal Rosel
AU - Nora Dinhopl
AU - Igor Loncaric
AU - Werner Ruppitsch
AU - Lindsey N Shaw
AU - Orla M Keane
AU - J Ross Fitzgerald
AU - Monika Ehling-Schulz
AU - Simon Heilbronner
AU - Tom Grunert
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Proceedings. Biological sciences
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2026.1930
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42869475
AB - Adaptation of bacterial pathogens to new hosts often involves the exchange of mobile genetic elements, or generally the highly variable accessory genome. However, adaptation to different niches is often plastic, mediated by conserved pathways in the core genome. The general stress response of most Gram-positive bacteria is a classic case of adaptive plasticity and mediated primarily by the alternative sigma factor B (SigB), a transcriptional regulator. In Staphylococcus aureus, however, sigma factor B appears to have been co-opted to regulate the switch between intracellular and extracellular niches. In the milk-rich extracellular niche of the bovine udder, low sigma factor B activity appears advantageous: during persistent bovine mastitis, narrowly adapted strains entirely deficient in sigma factor B have evolved repeatedly from phenotypically plastic sigma factor B-wild-type strains through various mutations. As we show by transfer of both natural bovine isolates and genetically engineered S. aureus strains from a complex medium to a milk-rich medium, this genetic assimilation is driven by the cost of phenotypic plasticity. Compared with mutated sigma factor B-deficient strains, plastic strains show long time lags in adapting to milk and slower subsequent growth. Overall, we show how a master regulator in the core genome can drive host-specific niche adaptation.
SN - 0962-8452
SN - 1471-2954
ER -