SRA

Coordinated protein-coding sequence transcriptional responses of Staphylococcus aureus to antimicrobial exposure are well described but little is known of the role of bacterial non-coding, small RNAs (sRNAs) in these responses. Here we used RNAseq to investigate the sRNA response of the epidemic multiresistant hospital ST239 S. Aureus strain JKD6009 and its vancomycin-intermediate clinical derivative, JKD6008, after exposure to four antibiotics representing the major classes of antimicrobials used to treat methicillin-resistant S. Aureus infections. These agents included vancomycin, linezolid, ceftobiprole, and tigecycline. We identified 410 potential sRNAs (sRNAs) and then compared global sRNA and mRNA expression profiles at 2 and 6 hours, without antibiotic exposure, and after exposure to 0.5 x MIC for each antibiotic, for both JKD6009 (VSSA), and JKD6008 (VISA). Overall design: Two strains were used (JKD6009, vancomycin-susceptible S. Aureus; JKD6008, in vivo derived vancomycin-intermediate S. Aureus). The complete JKD6008 genome seqeuce was used as the reference. Two time points, 2 hours and 6 hours after culture in Mueller Hinton broth. Strains were exposed to no antibiotic, or 0.5 x MIC for 10 mins for the following antibiotics; vancomycin, linezolid, ceftobiprole, tigecycline. RNA isolation procedures enriched for mRNA or sRNA. The 40 cDNA libraries were sequenced using a whole flowcell (8 lanes) in an Illumina genome analyzer GAII for 36 cycles. Data was analyzed using the BioConductor package limma, and by applying non-negative matrix factorization to determine the impact of antibiotic exposure on the sRNA and mRNA transcriptional profiles.