English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Staphylococcus aureus , a leading cause of bacterial infections in humans, is endowed with a wealth of virulence factors that contribute to the disease process. Several extracellular proteolytic enzymes, including cysteine proteinases referred to as the staphopains (staphopain A, encoded by the  scpA  gene, and staphopain B, encoded by  sspB ), have proposed roles for staphylococcal virulence. Here we present data regarding the distribution, copy number and genetic variability of the genes encoding the staphopains in a large number of  S. aureus  strains. The polymorphism of the  scpA  and  sspB  genes in three laboratory strains and 126 clinical isolates was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Both genes were detected in all isolates by PCR amplification and, based on the PCR-RFLP patterns, classified as four types for  scpA  and six types for  sspB . Those with the most divergent patterns were subjected to DNA sequencing and compared with genomic sequence data for the seven available strains of  S. aureus . Southern blot analysis of the  scpA  and  sspB  sequences indicates that they are strongly conserved as single-copy genes in the genome of each  S. aureus  strain investigated. Taken together, these data suggest that the staphopains have important housekeeping and/or virulence functions, and therefore may constitute an interesting target for the development of therapeutic inhibitors for the treatment of staphylococcal diseases.

Genetic characterization of staphopain genes in Staphylococcus aureus