Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 158 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2007. / "Graduate Program in Food Science." Includes bibliographical references.

Abstract not available

Protein Vga(A) gives staphylococci resistance to streptogramins A. The recently discovered protein Vga(A)LC differs from Vga(A) only by 7 amino acid residues, but this difference is sufficient for shift of its substrate specificity towards lincosamides. The group of four amino acids in the central part of protein (LGAG in Vga(A) and SVTS in Vga(A)LC) was detected to be crucial for the substrate specificity. In this diploma thesis 5 alternativesets of vga(A)LC gene point mutations were prepared in order to determine the impact of individual amino acids of the aforementioned group on the resistance phenotype. Mutations were prepared in vector pGEM® -T and cloned into shuttle vector pRB374. The prepared constructs were transformed by electroporation into the sensitive strain of Staphylococcus aureus RN4220 and values of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) were measured for lincomycin, clindamycin and pristinamycin IIA by the agar dilution method. The transformation was not successful in one of the mutations. Results of setting MIC for the remaining four mutations do not make it possible to specify uniquely the ratio of individual amino acids for determining substrate specificity. Two of the amino acids were found to be important. We anticipate preparation of more mutations.

The staphylococcal protein VgaA belongs to ARE ABCF family, which confers resistance to ribosome binding antibiotics by the target protection mechanism. VgaA confers resistance to lincosamides, streptogramins A and pleuromutilins and thus provides the so-called LSAP resistance phenotype. The expression of resistance genes often reduces fitness in the absence of an antibiotic, therefore the expression of resistance genes is often tightly controlled and triggered only in response to the presence of an antibiotic to which the protein confers resistance. The inducible expression has also been observed for the vgaA gene, nevertheless, its mechanism has not been elucidated. In the diploma thesis, it was shown that the vgaALC gene from Staphylococcus haemolyticus is regulated by ribosome-mediated attenuation. The mechanism is based on the detection of translation inhibitors via a ribosome translating a special regulatory open reading frame (uORF), which is part of an attenuator located in the 5' untranslated region of the mRNA. The vgaALC gene is regulated at the transcriptional level in response to LSAP antibiotics. Antibiotic specificity of induction is affected not only by the nature of the peptide encoded by uORF but also by the antibiotic specificity of the resistance protein. Fluorescence microscopy...