American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science Advances, 45(8), 2022
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Diabetic wounds have poor healing outcomes due to the presence of numerous pathogens and a dysregulated immune response. Group BStreptococcus(GBS) is commonly isolated from diabetic wound infections, but the mechanisms of GBS virulence during these infections have not been investigated. Here, we develop a murine model of GBS diabetic wound infection and, using dual RNA sequencing, demonstrate that GBS infection triggers an inflammatory response. GBS adapts to this hyperinflammatory environment by up-regulating virulence factors including those known to be regulated by the two-component systemcovRS, such as the surface proteinpbsP, and thecyloperon, which is responsible for hemolysin/pigmentation production. We recover hyperpigmented/hemolytic GBS colonies from the murine diabetic wound, which we determined encode mutations incovR. We further demonstrate that GBS mutants incylEandpbsPare attenuated in the diabetic wound. This foundational study provides insight into the pathogenesis of GBS diabetic wound infections.