Lipoteichoic acid biosynthesis by is controlled by the MspA protein.

produces a plethora of virulence factors critical to its ability to establish an infection and cause disease. We have previously characterized a small membrane protein, MspA, which has pleiotropic effects on virulence and contributes to pathogenicity . Here we report that inactivation triggers overaccumulation of the essential cell wall component, lipoteichoic acid (LTA), which, in turn, decreases autolytic activity and leads to increased cell size due to a delay in cell separation.

A Small Membrane Stabilizing Protein Critical to the Pathogenicity of Staphylococcus aureus.

is a major human pathogen, and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains is making all types of infections more challenging to treat. With a pressing need to develop alternative control strategies to use alongside or in place of conventional antibiotics, one approach is the targeting of established virulence factors. However, attempts at this have had little success to date, suggesting that we need to better understand how this pathogen causes disease if effective targets are to be identified.

Antimicrobial effect of different types of honey on .

Honey exhibits antimicrobial activities against a wide range of bacteria in different milieu. This study aims to compare the effects of five types of honey (both imported and local Saudi honey) against . The five types of honey (Manuka Honey UMF +20, Manuka Honey UMF +16, Active +10 Manuka Honey, Sidr honey and honey) were evaluated for their bactericidal/bacteriostatic activities against both methicillin resistant and sensitive .

Antimicrobial activities of Saudi honey against Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Unlabelled: Five types of imported and local honey were screened for both their bacteriocidal/bacteriostatic activities against both Imipenem resistant and sensitive Pseudomonas aeruginosa in both Brain Heart infusion broth and Mueller-Hinton agar. The results indicated that the effect was concentration and type of honey dependant. All types of honey tested exerted a full inhibition of bacterial growth at the highest concentration tested of 50% at 24 h of contact.