Rot Repression of Enterotoxin B Expression in Staphylococcus aureus

The accessory gene regulator (Agr) system is a quorum-sensing system of Staphylococcus aureus responsible for upregulation of certain exoprotein genes and downregulation of certain cell-wall associated proteins during the post-exponential phase of growth. The enterotoxin B (seb) determinant is upregulated by the Agr system. Agr-regulated cis elements within the seb promoter region were examined by deletion analyses of the seb promoter by a hybrid promoter approach utilizing the staphylococcal lac operon promoter. To identify the regulatory pathway for enterotoxin B expression, the seb promoter fused to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene was introduced into mutants of S. aureus lacking agr or different members of the Sar family of transcriptional regulators. Agr control of seb promoter activity was found to be dependent upon the presence of a functional Rot protein, and Rot was shown to be able to bind to the seb promoter. Therefore, the Agr-mediated post-exponential-phase increase in seb transcription results from the Agr system's inactivation of Rot repressor activity.