ch. krishna pradeep

Staphylococcus aureus has the ability to form biofi lms on any niches, a key pathogenic factor of this organism and this phenomenon is directly related to the concentration of NADPH. The formation of NADP is catalyzed by NAD kinase (NADK) and this gene of S. aureus ATCC 12600 was cloned, sequenced, expressed and characterized.

The NADK gene was polymerase chain reaction amplifi ed from the chromosomal DNA of S. aureus ATCC 12600 and cloned in pQE 30 vector, sequenced and expressed in Escherichia coli DH5α. The pure protein was obtained by passing through nickel metal chelate agarose column. The enzyme kinetics of the enzyme and biofi lm assay of the S. aureus was carried out in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The kinetics was further confi rmed by the ability of the substrates to dock to the NADK structure.

The recombinant NADK exhibited single band with a molecular weight of 31kDa in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and the gene sequence (GenBank: JN645814) revealed presence of only one kind of NADK in all S. aureus strains. The enzyme exhibited very high affi nity for NAD compared to adenosine triphosphate concurring with the docking results. A root-mean-square deviation value 14.039Å observed when NADK structure was superimposed with its human counterpart suggesting very low homology. In anaerobic conditions, higher biofi lm units were found with decreased NADK activity.

The results of this study suggest increased NADPH concentration in S. aureus plays a vital role in the biofi lm formation and survival of this pathogen in any environmental conditions.