Figure 5 Survival of wildtype and CovS mutants in whole blood. The multiplication factor for each CovS mutant strain is shown as percentage from the data obtained with the corresponding wild type strain, buy MRT67307 which was set to 100% for each independent test. The data represent the mean values and standard deviations from two independent sets of experiments using blood from three different donors. *, indicates significance level for differences between wildtype and isogenic mutant strains as calculated by the two-tailed paired Student’s t test. Discussion Lately, an increasing amount of data compile to a strong

argument for a strain-dependent transcriptional regulation in GAS. In addition, a comparison of the set of genes regulated by CovRS in different Streptococcus agalactiae SB-715992 concentration (Group B streptococci, GBS) strains revealed variations in their CovRS regulons. Thus, a strain-specific manner of CovRS-mediated gene regulation in GBS was reported [34]. In this study,

we investigated the potential effect of the sensor kinase CovS on virulence traits of different S. pyogenes serotypes strains, in order to figure out if a serotype- or strain-dependent influence of CovS regulation in GAS does occur in the genetic background of an intact response regulator CovR. FK228 ic50 Although CovRS has been described as a global regulatory system in GAS, our results clearly showed that variations of the CovS effect on biofilm formation appear and that strain-dependent diversity in the CovRS regulons might PAK5 exist also in GAS. Biofilm production

has been described recently as an important protective mechanism of GAS associated with increased antibiotic resistance [17]. Previously, Cho and Caparon [18] showed that a M6 mutant lacking CovR failed to form biofilms, which suggests that the CovRS TCS is required for biofilm formation in GAS. Surprisingly, in contrast to the latter observation, our investigation showed that the CovS inactivation in other M6 strains did not lead to the same result. This statement implied that CovS might be involved in a strain-dependent influence on biofilm formation. Alternatively, since our mutant is deficient of CovS, but not CovR, the observed contradiction could be indicative of divergent influence of the response regulator CovR and histidine kinase CovS on biofilm formation. Another explanation supported by a previous study by Dalton and Scott suggested a direct or indirect influence of CovS on CovR under mild stress conditions [35]. Such stress conditions could have an influence on S. pyogenes biofilm growth. Further experiments presented here on the biofilm production of different GAS serotypes strains showed that the CovS influence on biofilm of GAS is a strain-dependent characteristic. This heterogeneity among different isolates could be associated with adaptation to diverse host environments.