THE STAPHYLOCOCCUS PSEUDINTERMEDIUS ADHESIN SPSD CONTAINS A CENTRAL FIBRONECTIN-BINDING DOMAIN

Staphylococcus pseudintermedius is a Gram-positive bacterium significant because of its ability to cause costly and difficult to treat veterinary infections worldwide. It exhibits several similarities to Staphylococcus aureus, however, very little is known about its surface adhesins. Surface adhesins in S. aureus are significant contributors to pathogenesis. S. pseudintermedius encodes the surface protein SpsD, which contains characteristics of the microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules family and confers attachment of the heterologous host Lactococcus lactis to fibronectin. This work has identified a centrally-located fibronectin binding domain in SpsD which binds the 30 kDa N-terminal domain of fibronectin with high affinity. The data indicate that a tandem β-zipper mechanism of binding may be taking place, and warrants further study into SpsD’s role in overall colonization of the host