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If microbes won prizes for achievements, Staphylococcus aureus undoubtedly would win a lifetime achievement award for intensity and diversity of its depredations: septicemia, meningitis, endocarditis, osteomyelitis, and toxic shock syndrome, to name a few. Yet, even the amazing S. aureus has worthy opponents.
Sergine Even of INRA, Rennes, France, et al., show through transcriptome studies that the food-grade lactic acid bacterium Lactococcus lactis suppresses induction of several S. aureus virulence factors and regulators in mixed culture. "The downregulation of virulence-associated genes, including the agr locus, sarA, and some enterotoxin genes, occurred even though L. lactis barely affected S. aureus's growth in the tested conditions," says Even. "Exploring interactions between positive microbiota, such as lactic acid bacteria, and S. aureus will illuminate molecular mechanisms involved in inhibiting S. aureus growth and virulence. We will then have rational criteria to screen and select positive microbiota to be used in food preservation. This will also yield new biocontrol strategies, especially for fermentation, where a complex and balanced microbiota is essential, and where antibiotics cannot be used. We are now investigating the mechanisms involved in L. lactis's inhibition of S. aureus."
(S. Even, C. Charlier, S. Nouaille, N. L. Ben Zakour, M. Cretenet, F. J. Cousin, M. Gautier, M. Cocaign-Bousquet, P. Loubière, and Y. Le Loir. 2009. Staphylococcus aureus virulence expression is impaired by Lactococcus lactis in mixed cultures. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75:4459-4472.)
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