Proteomic profiling of the endogenous peptides of MRSA and MSSA

Haixia Tu; Fei Xu; Yiwei Cheng; Qianglong Pan; Xiao Cai; Shouxing Wang; Shuting Ge; Min Cao; Dongming Su; Yan Li

doi:10.7717/peerj.12508

Proteomic profiling of the endogenous peptides of MRSA and MSSA

PeerJ. 2021 Nov 24:9:e12508. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12508. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Haixia Tu^#¹, Fei Xu^#², Yiwei Cheng³, Qianglong Pan¹, Xiao Cai¹, Shouxing Wang¹, Shuting Ge³, Min Cao¹, Dongming Su¹, Yan Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Center of Pathology and Clinical Laboratory, Sir Run Run Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
² Blood Transfusion Department, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
³ School of Basic Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is a Gram-positive bacterium that can cause diverse skin and soft tissue infections. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can cause more severe infections than methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA). Nevertheless, the physiological and metabolic regulation of MSSA and MRSA has not been well studied. In light of the increased interest in endogenous peptides and recognition of the important roles that they play, we studied the endogenous peptidome of MSSA and MRSA. We identified 1,065 endogenous peptides, among which 435 were differentially expressed (DE), with 292 MSSA-abundant endogenous peptides and 35 MRSA-abundant endogenous peptides. MSSA-abundant endogenous peptides have significantly enriched "VXXXK" motif of at the C-terminus. MSSA-abundant endogenous peptides are involved in penicillin-binding and immune responses, whereas MRSA-abundant endogenous peptides are associated with antibiotic resistance and increased toxicity. Our characterization of the peptidome of MSSA and MRSA provides a rich resource for future studies to explore the functional regulation of drug resistance in S. aureus and may also help elucidate the mechanisms of its pathogenicity and the development of treatments.

Keywords: Differential endogenous peptidome; MRSA; Mass spectrometry; Protein; Staphylococcus aureus.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Sir Run Run Hospital, Nanjing Medical University (YFZDXK01-5) and the School Foundation of Nanjing Medical University (NMUB2020319). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.