Interaction between Staphylococcus aureus and bovine mammary epithelial cells

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Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic pathogen that causes a variety of diseases in humans and animals. In dairy industry, S. aureus mastitis is extremely difficult to control and usually develops into a chronic infection, at least partially due to invasion of bacteria into epithelial cells, which may help resist defense mechanisms of the host and decrease the efficacy of antibiotic treatment. The global objective of this proposed research is to continue my previous NSERC discovery grant and to study the mechanisms by which surface adhesins of S. aureus attach to and invade bovine mammary epithelial cells, using Clf-A as a model system. Invasion of bovine mammary epithelial cells by S. aureus have been reported in primary and cultured mammary epithelial cells and in a mouse model system. Adherence and the subsequent invasion processes are the two most important and decisive prerequisites to the establishment of chronic S. aureus intramammary infections. These two processes are mediated by a large, structurally related, family of surface-expressed proteins including clumping factors A. This proposed research will focus on Clf-A.