Amanda L. Jones

TL;DR: The genomic sequence of six strains representing the five major disease-causing serotypes of Streptococcus agalactiae, the main cause of neonatal infection in humans, was generated and Mathematical extrapolation of the data suggests that the gene reservoir available for inclusion in the S. agalactic pan-genome is vast and that unique genes will continue to be identified even after sequencing hundreds of genomes.

TL;DR: Signature‐tagged transposon mutagenesis was used to identify genes required for growth and survival of GBS in a neonatal rat sepsis infection model and revealed GBS genomic loci that encode a wide variety of functional gene classes, underscoring the diversity of bacterial processes required for the infection process.

TL;DR: Staphylokinase production may be a novel virulence mechanism by which S. aureus exploits cathelicidin to promote fibrinolysis, leading to enhanced bacterial dissemination and invasive infection.

TL;DR: This study is the first to identify a role for a PBP in resistance to host AMPs, encoded by ponA, and this novel function for PBP1a in promoting resistance of GBS to AMP did not involve an alteration in bacterial surface charge or peptidoglycan cross-linking.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identified a mutant with a transposon insertion in the ponA gene that encoded an extra-cytoplasmic penicillin-binding protein PBP1a, a newly identified virulence trait for GBS that promotes resistance to phagocytic killing independent of capsular polysaccharide.