Differential temporal expression of the staphylococcal enterotoxins genes during cell growth

Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) are a large family of structurally related superantigens produced by Staphylococcus aureus and responsible for staphylococcal food-poisoning (SFP). To better understand how the se genes are expressed, and especially the newly described ones (seg to ser, seu), a quantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction was developed and used to monitor their expression in a panel of 28 enterotoxigenic staphylococci including seven reference strains and 21 isolates collected from foods and SFP outbreaks in France. Kinetic mRNA studies revealed four distinct patterns of expression according to the enterotoxins genes analysed corresponding either to: (i) unchanged mRNAs abundance during bacterial growth (sea, see, sej, sek, seq and sep); (ii) slight decrease in transcript levels (seg, sei, sem, sen, seo, seu); (iii) drastic induction of expression at the end of the exponential growth phase (seb, sec, seh), or (iv) modest post-exponential increase in mRNAs level (<10-fold) (sed, ser, sel). The study demonstrates that all se containing strains are potentially able to produce SEs and that most of the newly described se genes are likely not controlled by the agr system. The rapid assessment of se transcripts levels by RT-qPCR might provide valuable clue to evaluate the poisoning risk linked to a strain.