Staphylococcus aureus molecular properties

In reconstitution experiments, the self-assembly of the pore-forming protein a-hemolysin of Staphylococcus aureus (aHL) [181-183] was examined in plain and S-layer-supported lipid bilayers. Staphylococcal aHL formed lytic pores when added to the lipid-exposed side of the DPhPC bilayer with or without an attached S-layer from B coagulans E38/vl. The assembly of aHL pores was slower at S-layer-supported compared to unsupported folded membranes. No assembly could be detected upon adding aHL monomers to the S-layer face of the composite membrane. Therefore, the intrinsic molecular sieving properties of the S-layer lattice did not allow passage of aHL monomers through the S-layer pores to the lipid bilayer [142]. 

P-Lactamases were first described in Staphylococcus aureus as factors causing resistance to penicillin (Kirby 1944). Later, the first plasmid-encoded P-lactamase, designated TEM based on the patient s name, was described in Greece from a strain of E. coli (Datta and Kontomichalou 1965). Currently, hundreds of different types of p-lactamases have been described. These enzymes are categorized based on their molecular properties (Ambler classification) or their hydrolytic pattern (Bush classification)—see Table 12.1 (Bush et al. 1995 Bush and Jacoby 2010). 

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