Identification and Characterization of the CRISPR/Cas System in Staphylococcus aureus Strains From Diverse Sources

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Resumen

The CRISPR-Cas [clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and the CRISPR-associated genes (Cas)] system provides defense mechanisms in bacteria and archaea vs. mobile genetic elements (MGEs), such as plasmids and bacteriophages, which can either be harmful or add sequences that can provide virulence or antibiotic resistance. Staphylococcus aureus is a Gram-positive bacterium that could be the
etiological agent of important soft tissue infections that can lead to bacteremia and sepsis. The role of the CRISPR-Cas system in S. aureus is not completely understood since there
is a lack of knowledge about it. We analyzed 716 genomes and 1 genomic island from
GENOMES-NCBI and ENA-EMBL searching for the CRISPR-Cas systems and their
spacer sequences (SSs). Our bioinformatic analysis shows that only 0.83% (6/716) of the
analyzed genomes harbored the CRISPR-Cas system, all of them were subtype III-A,
which is characterized by the presence of the cas10/csm1 gene. Analysis of SSs showed
that 91% (40/44) had no match to annotated MGEs and 9% of SSs corresponded to
plasmids and bacteriophages, indicating that those phages had infected those S. aureus
strains. Some of those phages have been proposed as an alternative therapy in biofilmforming
or infection with S. aureus strains, but these findings indicate that such antibiotic phage strategy would be ineffective. More research about the CRISPR/Cas system is
necessary for a bigger number of S. aureus strains from different sources, so additional features can be studied
Idioma originalInglés
PublicaciónFrontiers in Microbiology
EstadoPublicada - 2 jun. 2021

Palabras clave

  • Staphylococcus
  • Multidrug
  • CRISPR

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