GLOBAL CHANGES IN STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS GENE EXPRESSION DURING HUMAN PROSTHETIC JOINT INFECTION

AimThe aim of this study was to gain insight into the in vivo expression of virulence and metabolic genes of Staphylococcus aureus in a prosthetic joint infection in a human subject.MethodDeep RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used for transcriptome profile of joint fluid obtained from a patient undergoing surgery due to acute S. aureus prosthetic joint infection. The S. aureus gene expression in the infection was compared with exponential culture of a S. aureus isolate obtained from the same sample using EdgeR. In addition, the genome of the isolate was sequenced on Miseq, assembled in CLC genomics workbench and annotated by MaGe. Moreover, using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy we analysed the metabolites in the joint fluid and in the culture supernatants to determine the biochemical composition of the environments.ResultsAntibiotic susceptibility testing by disk diffusion (EUCAST) demonstrated that the strain was susceptible to β-lactams (penicillin and cefoxitin) and macrolides (erythromycin a...