Oxidative stress responses Some transcripts up-regulated by temperature up-shift at 48°C but not at 43°C were coding for enzymes coping check details with oxidative stress, in particular the superoxide dismutase gene sodA, and to a lesser extent (ratio: 1.84) thioredoxin (trxA) but not thioredoxin reductase (trxB). Occurrence of a heat-induced DNA damage at 48°C but not 43°C, potentially linked with oxidative stress, was suggested

by increased transcript levels of nine genes coding for enzymes involved in DNA repair or/and recombination, namely dinB, uvrC, addA, recU, mutS2, the transcription-repair coupling factor mfd, the exonuclease SbcC, a zinc-dependent DNA glycosylase (SA1512), and to a lower extent polA encoding DNA polymerase I (ratio: 1.84). Part of those genes coding for DNA-damage repair and recombination enzymes were previously reported to be up-regulated, though to a variable extent, by S. aureus exposure to DNA-damaging agents such as mitomycin C [33] and ciprofloxacin [37], low pH [38], nitrite stress

[39], peracetic acid [40] and cell-wall-active antibiotics [36]. In contrast, only one (uvrC) DNA-damage repair gene was up-regulated in S. aureus up-shifted to 43°C for 30 min [33]. In contrast to cell exposed to DNA-damaging agents [33, 37], we did not observe up-regulation of recA and lexA genes at 43°C Captisol chemical structure or 48°C, which indicated the lack of a significant SOS response in heat-stressed bacteria. Metal transporters Several genes coding for influx or efflux metal transporters showed

altered activities, which indicated possible Metalloexopeptidase dysregulation of metal homeostasis by temperature up-shifts. Except for the up-regulation of nixA coding for a high affinity nickel uptake transporter that seemed to be linked with urea cycle activation (see below), other up-regulated genes were encoding copper (copA) and zinc (czrAB) efflux transporters. Despite extensive studies, we lack a global, comprehensive model describing the regulation of physiological, intracellular levels of iron and other heavy metals in S. aureus, under normal and stressful conditions [41, 42]. While the peroxide operon regulator PerR was up-regulated at both 48°C and 43°C, transcript levels of some but not all PerR-regulated genes, such as katA (catalase), fnt (ferritin), and dps/mgrA also showed some increase at 48°C (see Additional file 2). The down-regulation of ABC transporter genes for other metallic cations such as manganese (mntABC) or cobalt might also indicate the need to avoid intracellular MAPK inhibitor accumulation of potentially toxic levels of free heavy metals at 48°C. Adjustment of ATP-providing pathways in heat-shocked S. aureus Increasing, heat-triggered demand for protein- and DNA-repair mechanisms leads to higher consumption of cellular energy resources.