Complete sequences of epidermin and nukacin encoding plasmids from oral-derived Staphylococcus epidermidis and their antibacterial activity

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 1; p. e0258283
• Main Authors: Nakazono, Kenta, Le, Mi Nguyen-Tra, Kawada-Matsuo, Miki, Kimheang, Noy, Hisatsune, Junzo, Oogai, Yuichi, Nakata, Masanobu, Nakamura, Norifumi, Sugai, Motoyuki, Komatsuzawa, Hitoshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 18.01.2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Activity patterns; Amino Acid Sequence; Amino acids; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibacterial activity; Antibiotics; Antimicrobial agents; Antimicrobial peptides; Bacteria; Bacteriocins; Bacteriocins - genetics; Bacteriocins - pharmacology; Bacteriology; Biology and Life Sciences; Catheters; Drug resistance; Flora; Gene sequencing; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genomes; Health aspects; Health sciences; Humans; Identification and classification; Infectious diseases; Maxillofacial surgery; Medicine and Health Sciences; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Mouth - microbiology; Peptides; Phenols; Plasmids; Plasmids - genetics; Research and Analysis Methods; Staphylococcus; Staphylococcus epidermidis; Staphylococcus epidermidis - drug effects; Staphylococcus epidermidis - genetics; Strains (organisms); Streptococcus infections; University graduates; Japan; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258283

Staphylococcus epidermidis is a commensal bacterium in humans. To persist in the bacterial flora of the host, some bacteria produce antibacterial factors such as the antimicrobial peptides known as bacteriocins. In this study, we tried to isolate bacteriocin-producing S. epidermidis strains. Among 150 S. epidermidis isolates from the oral cavities of 287 volunteers, we detected two bacteriocin-producing strains, KSE56 and KSE650. Complete genome sequences of the two strains confirmed that they carried the epidermin-harboring plasmid pEpi56 and the nukacin IVK45-like-harboring plasmid pNuk650. The amino acid sequence of epidermin from KSE56 was identical to the previously reported sequence, but the epidermin synthesis-related genes were partially different. The prepeptide amino acid sequences of nukacin KSE650 and nukacin IVK45 showed one mismatch, but both mature peptides were entirely similar. pNuk650 was larger and had an additional seven ORFs compared to pIVK45. We then investigated the antibacterial activity of the two strains against several skin and oral bacteria and found their different activity patterns. In conclusion, we report the complete sequences of 2 plasmids coding for bacteriocins from S. epidermidis, which were partially different from those previously reported. Furthermore, this is the first report to show the complete sequence of an epidermin-carrying plasmid, pEpi56.