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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

A Fluorescence-based Method to Study Bacterial Gene Regulation in Infected Tissues
Published on: February 19, 2019
The Staphylococcus aureus KdpDE two-component system couples extracellular K+ sensing and Agr signaling to infection
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China. xueting@mail.ustc.edu.cn
Abstract:
The Kdp system is widely distributed among bacteria. In Escherichia coli, the Kdp-ATPase is a high-affinity K+ uptake system and its expression is activated by the KdpDE two-component system in response to K+ limitation or salt stress. However, information about the role of this system in many bacteria still remains obscure. Here we demonstrate that KdpFABC in Staphylococcus aureus is not a major K+ transporter and that the main function of KdpDE is not associated with K+ transport but that instead it regulates transcription for a series of virulence factors through sensing external K+ concentrations, indicating that this bacterium might modulate its infectious status through sensing specific external K+ stimuli in different environments. Our results further reveal that S. aureus KdpDE is upregulated by the Agr/RNAIII system, which suggests that KdpDE may be an important virulence regulator coordinating the external K+ sensing and Agr signaling during pathogenesis in this bacterium.
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