Glycosylation of Staphylococcus aureus cell wall teichoic acid is influenced by environmental conditions

Wall teichoic acid (WTA) are major constituents of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) cell envelopes with important roles in the bacteria's physiology, resistance to antimicrobial molecules, host interaction, virulence and biofilm formation. They consist of ribitol phosphate repeat units in which the ribitol residue is substituted with D-alanine (D-Ala) and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc). The complete S. aureus WTA biosynthesis pathways was recently revealed with the identification of the two glycosyltransferases, TarM and TarS, respectively responsible for the alpha- and beta-GlcNAc anomeric substitutions. We performed structural analyses to characterize WTAs from a panel of 24 S. aureus strains responsible for invasive infections. A majority of the S. aureus strains produced the beta-GlcNAc WTA form in accordance with the presence of the tarS gene in all strains assessed. The beta-GlcNAc anomer was preferentially expressed at the expense of the alpha-GlcNAc anomer when grown on stress-inducing culture medium containing high NaCl concentration. Furthermore, WTA glycosylation of the prototype S. aureus Newman strain was characterized in vivo in two different animal models, namely peritonitis and deep wound infection. While the inoculum used to infect animals produced almost exclusively alpha-GlcNAc WTA, a complete switch to beta-glycosylation was observed in infected kidneys, livers and muscles. Overall, our data demonstrate that S. aureus WTA glycosylation is strongly influenced by environmental conditions and suggest that beta-GlcNAc WTA may bring competitive advantage in vivo.