Lanes: 1 and Fulvestrant chemical structure 6, molecular mass marker; 2 and 7, cell wall protein from 1457ΔlytSR strain; 3 and 8, cell wall protein from wild type strain; 4 and 9, extracellular protein from 1457ΔlytSR strain; 5 and 10, extracellular protein from wild type strain. The results are representative of three independent experiments. Quantitative murein hydrolase assay was further carried out by adding 100 μg of extracellular protein extract to a suspension of heat-killed M. luteus or S. epidermidis

in Tris-HCl buffer, and monitoring the reduction in the suspension turbidity (OD600). However, cell wall hydrolysis performed with extracellular murein hydrolases from 1457ΔlytSRwas undergoing more slowly than that from the parent strain. After 4 hours’ incubation, a decrease of 69% or 44% in turbidity (OD600) was observed in the suspension of M. luteus (Figure 6A) or S. epidermidis (Figure 6B) added with extracellular murein hydrolases from 1457ΔlytSR, contrasted click here to a reduction of 84% or

54% with extracellular murein hydrolases from the parent strain, indicating that disruption of lytSR resulted in decreased activities of extracellular murein hydrolases (Student’s t test, P < 0.05) which probably could not be detected by zymographic analysis. Expression of lytSR in trans restored extracellular murein hydrolase activity to nearly wild-type levels (Figure 6). Figure 6 Quantitative murein

hydrolase assays of S. epidermidis 1457 ΔlytSR. Aliquots (100 μg) of the extracellular proteins concentrated by ultrafiltration Anidulafungin (LY303366) from the supernant were added to a 1-mg/ml suspension of M. luteus (A) and S. epidermidis (B) cells separately, and the turbidity at 600 nm was monitored for 4 h. Cell wall hydrolysis was determined by measurement of turbidity every 30 min. Data are means ± SD of 3 independent experiments. Impact of lytSR knockout on S. epidermidis biofilm formation As biofilm formation is the major determinant of S.epidermidis pathogenicity, the impact of lytSR deletion on biofilm formation was further investigated. Semi-quantitative assay of S.epidermidis biofilm formation in polystyrene microtitre plates was performed and S.epidermidis ATCC12228 was used as a biofilm negative control. It was observed that 1457ΔlytSR produced slightly more biofilm than the wild-type counterpart (Student’s t test, P < 0.05). When lytSR was complemented in the mutant, biofilm formation was reduced to the same levels as that observed in the parent strain (Figure 7). Figure 7 Effect of lytSR gene knocking out on S. epidermidis biofilm formation. The biofilm formation of S. epidermidis ΔlytSR and its parent strain was detected by semi-quantitative microtiter plate assay. Briefly, the overnight bacterial were diluted by 1:200 and cultured in 96-well plate (200 μl/well) at 37 °C for 24 h.