saprophyticus. These proteins (i.e. SdrI, UafA and UafB) are all involved in adhesion [7–9], a crucial first step in the colonisation process. S. saprophyticus also possesses

non-covalently surface-associated Aas [10, 11] and Ssp [12] proteins that are implicated in virulence. Other than surface proteins, S. saprophyticus produces abundant urease which selleck compound contributes to its ability to grow in urine [13]. Other putative virulence factors include cell surface hydrophobicity [14], slime [15] and D-serine deaminase [16]. Apart from rare complications, S. saprophyticus is only known to infect the urinary system [17–19]. The primary niches of this organism are in the human gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts [4, 20]. S. saprophyticus UTI is often preceded by colonisation of the perineal area; thus it can survive despite the innate Veliparib ic50 immune defences of the skin. In this study, we have identified a previously undescribed LPXTG motif-containing cell wall-anchored protein of S. saprophyticus,

termed SssF. The sssF gene is plasmid-encoded in S. saprophyticus strains ATCC 15305 and MS1146 and is highly RGFP966 in vivo prevalent in clinical isolates. We show that SssF belongs to a family of proteins conserved among staphylococcal species and contributes to survival against the staphylocidal free fatty acid linoleic acid – a component of the human innate immune defence system. Results Analysis of plasmid pSSAP2 S. saprophyticus strain MS1146, a clinical UTI isolate, has been described previously [7]. Its genome contains three Anidulafungin (LY303366) plasmids – pSSAP1, pSSAP2 and pSSAP3. Sequence analysis of the 36 907 bp pSSAP2 plasmid revealed the presence of 35 predicted protein-coding genes, six pseudogenes and a mean G + C content of 29.9% (Figure 1 and Additional file 1: Table S1). Like other staphylococcal plasmids previously described, pSSAP2 has a mosaic structure with evidence of

multiple insertions and deletions of discrete sequence blocks. Figure 1 Structure of the S. saprophyticus MS1146 plasmid pSSAP2 compared to the S. saprophyticus ATCC 15305 plasmid pSSP1, and the chromosomes of S. saprophyticus ATCC 15305 and S. saprophyticus MS1146. Arrows represent CDS coloured according to their predicted function: no specific function (light blue); replication (pink); transposase for IS431 (yellow); other transposase (orange); integrase (brown); virulence-related (red); hypothetical protein (grey); and pseudogenes (black). Similarity regions between sequences are coloured in a gradient of blue, reflecting the percentage of nucleotide identity ranging from 91 to 100%, as illustrated on the scale on the top right of the figure. Plasmid pSSAP2 contains the repA gene and an approximately 17 kb region (from position 4 124 to 21 247) which share 96% and 97-99% nucleotide identity, respectively, with the chromosome of S. saprophyticus ATCC 15305 (Figure 1).