Plasticity of Coagulase-Negative Staphylococcal Membrane Fatty Acid Composition and Implications for Responses to Antimicrobial Agents

Staphylococcus aureus demonstrates considerable membrane lipid plasticity in response to different growth environments, which is of potential relevance to response and resistance to various antimicrobial agents. This information is not available for various species of coagulase-negative staphylococci, which are common skin inhabitants, can be significant human pathogens, and are resistant to multiple antibiotics. We determined the total fatty acid compositions of Staphylococcus auricularis, Staphylococcus capitis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus haemolyticus, Staphylococcus hominis, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, and Staphylococcus aureus for comparison purposes. Different proportions of branched-chain and straight-chain fatty acids were observed amongst the different species. However, growth in cation-supplemented Mueller–Hinton broth significantly increased the proportion of branched-chain fatty acids, and membrane fluidities as measured by fluorescence anisotropy. Cation-supplemented Mueller–Hinton broth is used for routine determination of antimicrobial susceptibilities. Growth in serum led to significant increases in straight-chain unsaturated fatty acids in the total fatty acid profiles, and decreases in branched-chain fatty acids. This indicates preformed fatty acids can replace biosynthesized fatty acids in the glycerolipids of coagulase-negative staphylococci, and indicates that bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis system II may not be a good target for antimicrobial agents in these organisms. Even though the different species are expected to be exposed to skin antimicrobial fatty acids, they were susceptible to the major skin antimicrobial fatty acid sapienic acid (C16:1Δ6). Certain species were not susceptible to linoleic acid (C18:2Δ9,12), but no obvious relationship to fatty acid composition could be discerned.