Staphylococcus aureus forms spreading dendrites that have characteristics of active motility
Staphylococcus aureus is historically regarded as a non-motile organism. More recently it has been shown that S. aureus can passively move across agar surfaces in a process called spreading. We re-analysed spreading motility using a modified assay and fo- cused on observing the formation of dendrite...
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| Format: | Article |
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Nature Publishing Group
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31946/ |
| _version_ | 1848794302441848832 |
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| author | Pollitt, Eric J.G. Crusz, Shanika A. Diggle, Stephen P. |
| author_facet | Pollitt, Eric J.G. Crusz, Shanika A. Diggle, Stephen P. |
| author_sort | Pollitt, Eric J.G. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Staphylococcus aureus is historically regarded as a non-motile organism. More recently it has been shown that S. aureus can passively move across agar surfaces in a process called spreading. We re-analysed spreading motility using a modified assay and fo- cused on observing the formation of dendrites: branching structures that emerge from the central colony. We discovered that S. aureus can spread across the surface of media in struc- tures that we term ‘comets’, which advance outwards and precede the formation of dendrites. We observed comets in a diverse selection of S. aureus isolates and they exhibit the following behaviours: (1) They consist of phenotypically distinct cores of cells that move forward and seed other S. aureus cells behind them forming a comet ‘tail’; (2) they move when other cells in the comet tail have stopped moving; (3) the comet core is held together by a matrix of slime; and (4) the comets etch trails in the agar as they move forwards. Comets are not con- sistent with spreading motility or other forms of passive motility. Comet behaviour does share many similarities with a form of active motility known as gliding. Our observations therefore suggest that S. aureus is actively motile under certain conditions. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:14:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-31946 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:14:02Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-319462020-05-04T17:26:17Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31946/ Staphylococcus aureus forms spreading dendrites that have characteristics of active motility Pollitt, Eric J.G. Crusz, Shanika A. Diggle, Stephen P. Staphylococcus aureus is historically regarded as a non-motile organism. More recently it has been shown that S. aureus can passively move across agar surfaces in a process called spreading. We re-analysed spreading motility using a modified assay and fo- cused on observing the formation of dendrites: branching structures that emerge from the central colony. We discovered that S. aureus can spread across the surface of media in struc- tures that we term ‘comets’, which advance outwards and precede the formation of dendrites. We observed comets in a diverse selection of S. aureus isolates and they exhibit the following behaviours: (1) They consist of phenotypically distinct cores of cells that move forward and seed other S. aureus cells behind them forming a comet ‘tail’; (2) they move when other cells in the comet tail have stopped moving; (3) the comet core is held together by a matrix of slime; and (4) the comets etch trails in the agar as they move forwards. Comets are not con- sistent with spreading motility or other forms of passive motility. Comet behaviour does share many similarities with a form of active motility known as gliding. Our observations therefore suggest that S. aureus is actively motile under certain conditions. Nature Publishing Group 2015-12-18 Article PeerReviewed Pollitt, Eric J.G., Crusz, Shanika A. and Diggle, Stephen P. (2015) Staphylococcus aureus forms spreading dendrites that have characteristics of active motility. Scientific Reports, 5 . 17698/1-17698/12. ISSN 2045-2322 Staphylococcus aureus motility quorum sensing surfactant http://www.nature.com/articles/srep17698 doi:10.1038/srep17698 doi:10.1038/srep17698 |
| spellingShingle | Staphylococcus aureus motility quorum sensing surfactant Pollitt, Eric J.G. Crusz, Shanika A. Diggle, Stephen P. Staphylococcus aureus forms spreading dendrites that have characteristics of active motility |
| title | Staphylococcus aureus forms spreading dendrites that have characteristics of active motility |
| title_full | Staphylococcus aureus forms spreading dendrites that have characteristics of active motility |
| title_fullStr | Staphylococcus aureus forms spreading dendrites that have characteristics of active motility |
| title_full_unstemmed | Staphylococcus aureus forms spreading dendrites that have characteristics of active motility |
| title_short | Staphylococcus aureus forms spreading dendrites that have characteristics of active motility |
| title_sort | staphylococcus aureus forms spreading dendrites that have characteristics of active motility |
| topic | Staphylococcus aureus motility quorum sensing surfactant |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31946/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31946/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31946/ |