Each antibiotic produced unique induction curves, which differed in lag times before induction, maximal rates of induction Temsirolimus price and peak induction levels. Induction kinetics were also strongly antibiotic concentration-dependent, to different extents for each antibiotic, and generally correlated inversely with decreasing OD values,

therefore linking induction kinetics to antibiotic activity. However, there were no obvious trends linking CHIR-99021 in vitro antibiotics acting on similar stages of CWSS with specific induction patterns. Therefore, the signal triggered by all of the antibiotics, that is responsible for activating VraS signal transduction, does not appear to be linked to any particular enzymatic target, as CWSS induction was triggered equally strongly by antibiotics targeting early cytoplasmic stages (e.g. fosfomycin) and late extracellular polymerization stages (e.g. oxacillin) of peptidoglycan synthesis. This is a key difference between the VraSR system of S. aureus and the homologous LiaRS systems of other Gram-positive bacteria such as B. subtilis and S. mutans, which are only activated by lipid-II interacting

antibiotics, such as bacitracin, ramoplanin and nisin [15–18]. The increased induction spectrum could account for the larger size of the S. aureus CWSS and its protective role against more different classes of antibiotics. Although no direct links between 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase induction properties and the impact of the CWSS on respective resistance phenotypes could be found. Previous studies have reported large Selleckchem CDK inhibitor differences in CWSS induction characteristics. However, most studies were performed on different strains and using different

experimental conditions. Variations in characteristics observed for the ten antibiotics tested here, indicated that each antibiotic has optimal induction conditions that should be determined before CWSS studies are carried out, including the right antibiotic concentration for the strain used and the optimal sampling time point to measure maximal induction. Acknowledgements This study has been carried out with financial support from the Commission of the European Communities, specifically the Infectious Diseases research domain of the Health theme of the 7th Framework Programme, contract number 241446, “”The effects of antibiotic administration on the emergence and persistence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans and on the composition of the indigenous microbiotas at various body sites”"; and the Swiss National Science Foundation grant 31-117707. References 1. Jordan S, Hutchings MI, Mascher T: Cell envelope stress response in Gram-positive bacteria. FEMS Microbiol Rev 2008, 32 (1) : 107–146.PubMedCrossRef 2.