National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 34(117), p. 20836-20847, 2020
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Significance Staphylococcus aureus , a human commensal organism that asymptomatically colonizes the nares, is capable of causing serious disease following breach of the mucosal barrier. S. aureus strains encode a type VII secretion system that is required for virulence in mouse infection models, and some strains also secrete a nuclease toxin by this route that has antibacterial activity. Here we identify TspA, widely found in Staphylococci and other pathogenic bacteria, as a type VII substrate. We show that TspA has membrane-depolarizing activity and that S. aureus uses TspA to inhibit the growth of a bacterial competitor in vivo.