The Rsp virulence regulator: new review in Trends in Microbiology

In the September issue of Trends in Microbiology, Mark Smeltzer casts the spotlight on the story of rsp, a virulence regulator in Staphylococcus aureus that evolves within infected patients and may play a role in disease.

The new review covers recent work on the rsp gene including a series papers that my collaborators and my group have contributed: 
Natural mutations in a Staphylococcus aureus virulence regulator attenuate cytotoxicity but permit bacteremia and abscess formation.
Das, S., Lindemann, C., Young, B. C., Muller, J., Österreich, B., Ternette, N., Winkler, A.-C., Paprotka, K., Reinhardt, R., Förstner, K. U., Allen, E., Flaxman, A., Yamaguchi, Y., Rollier, C. S., Van Diemen, P., Blättner, S., Remmele, C. W., Selle, M., Dittrich, M., Müller, T., Vogel, J., Ohlsen, K., Crook, D., Massey, R., Wilson, D. J., Rudel, T., Wyllie, D. H., and M. J. Fraunholz (2016)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 113: E3101–E3110. (abstract pdf)

Evolutionary trade-offs underlie the multi-faceted virulence of Staphylococcus aureus.
Laabei, M., Uhlemann, A.-C., Lowy, F. D., Austin, E. D., Yokoyama, M., Ouadi, K., Feil, E., Thorpe, H. A., Williams, B., Perkins, M., Peacock, S. J., Clarke, S. R., Dordel, J., Holden, M., Votintseva, A. A., Bowden, R., Crook, D. W., Young, B. C., Wilson, D. J., Recker, M. and R. C. Massey (2015)
PLoS Biology 13: e1002229. (abstract pdf)

Evolutionary dynamics of Staphylococcus aureus during progression from carriage to disease.
Young, B. C., Golubchik, T., Batty, E. M., Fung, R., Larner-Svennson, H., Votintseva, A., Miller, R. R., Godwin, H., Knox, K., Everitt, R. G., Iqbal, Z., Rimmer, A. J., Cule, M., Ip C. L. C., Didelot, X., Harding, R. M., Donnelly, P. J., Peto, T. E., Crook, D. W., Bowden, R. and D. J. Wilson (2012)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 109: 4550-4555. (abstract pdf F1000)