TcaR is an important transcriptional regulator involved in environmental stress response and virulence in foodborne Staphylococcus aureus

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Staphylococcus aureus is a pathogenic microorganism that widely exists in milk and dairy products, posing a great challenge to food safety and human health. Although TcaR is known to be the only transcriptional regulator in the teicoplanin-associated operon, its function in stress response and virulence has not been investigated. In this study, the role of TcaR in environmental stress tolerance, biofilm formation, antibiotic sensitivity and virulence was investigated in foodborne S. aureus . Deletion of tcaR induced the biofilm formation and environmental stress (heat, desiccation and H 2 O 2 ) tolerance of S. aureus . The tcaR mutants showed reduced susceptibility to vancomycin and teicoplanin. Additionally, mutation of tcaR resulted in decreased hemolytic activity, suggesting weakened virulence and pathogenicity of S. aureus . This paper is the first time to report the functions of TcaR in virulence and environmental tolerance, providing a new potential target gene for revealing mechanism of stress resistance in foodborne S. aureus and contributing to prevent food poisoning caused by this pathogenic microorganism. • S. aureus RMSA49 was isolated from milk and tcaR deletion mutant as well as complementary strain was constructed. • Deletion of tcaR increased the environmental stress response and biofilm formation in S. aureus RMSA49. • Deletion of tcaR decreased the susceptibility to glycopeptide antibiotics and hemolytic capacity in S. aureus RMSA49.