Janine Lux, Hannah Portmann, Lucía Sánchez García, Maria Erhardt, Lalaina Holivololona, Laura Laloli, Manon F Licheri, Clement Gallay, Robert Hoepner, Nicholas J Croucher, Daniel Straume, Jan-Willem Veening, Ronald Dijkman, Manfred Heller, Denis Grandgirard, Stephen L Leib, Lucy J Hathaway
Treatment of pneumococcal infections is limited by antibiotic resistance and exacerbation of disease by bacterial lysis releasing pneumolysin toxin and other inflammatory factors. We identified a previously uncharacterized peptide in the Klebsiella pneumoniae secretome, which enters Streptococcus pneumoniae via its AmiA-AliA/AliB permease. Subsequent downregulation of genes for amino acid biosynthesis and peptide uptake was associated with reduction of pneumococcal growth in defined medium and human cerebrospinal fluid, irregular cell shape, decreased chain length and decreased genetic transformation...
April 8, 2024: Communications Biology