Altered genomic methylation promotes Staphylococcus aureus persistence in hospital environment

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus can cause outbreaks and becomes multi-drug resistant through gene mutations and acquiring resistance genes. However, why S. aureus easily adapts to hospital environments, promoting resistance and recurrent infections, remains unknown. Here we show that a specific S. aureus lineage evolved from a clone that expresses the accessory gene regulator (Agr) system to subclones that reversibly suppressed Agr and caused an outbreak in the hospital setting. S. aureus with flexible Agr regulation shows increased ability to acquire antibiotic-resistant plasmids, escape host immunity, and colonize mice. Bacteria with flexible Agr regulation shows altered cytosine genomic methylation, including the decreased 5mC methylation in transcriptional regulator genes (pcrA and rpsD), compared to strains with normal Agr expression patterns. In this work, we discover how altered genomic methylation promotes flexible Agr regulation which is associated with persistent pathogen colonization in the hospital environment.