Type I toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are widespread genetic modules in bacterial genomes. They express toxic peptides whose overexpression leads to growth arrest or cell death, whereas antitoxins regulate the expression of toxins, acting as labile antisense RNAs. The Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) genome contains and expresses several functional type I TA systems, but their biological functions remain unclear. Here, we addressed and challenged experimentally, by proteomics, if the type I TA system, the SprG1/SprF1 pair, influences the overall gene expression in S. aureus. Deleted and complemented S. aureus strains were analyzed for their proteomes, both intracellular and extracellular, during growth. Comparison of intracellular proteomes among the strains points to the SprF1 antitoxin as moderately downregulating protein expression. In the strain naturally expressing the SprG1 toxin, cytoplasmic proteins are excreted into the medium, but this is not due to unspecific cell leakages. Such a toxin-driven release of the cytoplasmic proteins may modulate the host inflammatory response that, in turn, could amplify the S. aureus infection spread.
Keywords: 2D-DIGE; RNA antitoxin; Staphylococcus aureus; peptide toxins; proteomics; toxin–antitoxin systems (type I).