PCR-based detection of genes encoding virulence determinants in Staphylococcus aureus from bovine subclinical mastitis cases

The present study was carried out to genotypically characterize Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) isolated from bovine mastitis cases. A total of 37 strains of S. aureus were isolated during processing of 552 milk samples from 140 cows. The S. aureus strains were characterized phenotypically, and were further characterized genotypically by polymerase chain reaction using oligonucleotide primers that amplified genes encoding coagulase (coa), clumping factor (clfA), thermonuclease (nuc), enterotoxin A (entA), and the gene segments encoding the immunoglobulin G binding region and the X region of protein A gene spa. All of the isolates yielded an amplicon with a size of approximately 1,042 bp of the clfA gene. The amplification of the polymorphic spa gene segment encoding the immunoglobulin G binding region was observed in 34 isolates and X-region binding was detected in 26 isolates. Amplification of the coa gene yielded three different products in 20, 10, and 7 isolates. The amplification of the thermonuclease gene, nuc, was observed in 36 out of 37 isolates. All of the samples were negative for the entA gene. The phenotypic and genotypic findings of the present strategies might provide an understanding of the distribution of the prevalent S. aureus clones among bovine mastitis isolates, and might aid in the development of steps to control S. aureus infections in dairy herds.

Conformational features of a peptide model Ac-DTVKLMYKGQPMTFR-NH2, corresponding to an early folding beta hairpin region of staphylococcal nuclease.

Recent H-D exchange 1H NMR studies of the refolding of Staphylococcal nuclease (P117G) variant suggest that, a region of the protein corresponding to a beta hairpin in the native structure folded early in the refolding process. In order to investigate whether the formation of beta hairpin is an early folding event, we investigated the conformational features of the beta hairpin peptide model Ac-DTVKLMYKGQPMTFR-NH2 from Staphylococcal nuclease with 1H NMR techniques. It appears that the peptide aggregates even at a low concentration. However, based on the observation of weak dnn(i, i + 1) NOEs between K8-G9, G9-Q10, an upfield shift of Gly9 NH and a low temperature coefficient (-d delta/dT) for Gly9 NH, we suggest that the sequence YKGQP as part of the beta hairpin peptide model samples conformational forms with reduced conformational entropy and turn potential. The presence of aggregation could be restricting the population of folded conformational forms and formation of beta hairpin at detectable concentrations. We suggest that, formation of beta hairpin could be an early event in the folding of Staphylococcal nuclease and this observation correlates with H-D exchange 1H NMR results and also with the prediction of a protein folding model proposed in literature.