Catabolite control protein A is an important regulator of metabolism in Streptococcus suis type 2.

Streptococcus suis (S. suis) type 2 is an extremely important Gram-positive bacterial pathogen that can cause human or swine endocarditis, meningitis, bronchopneumonia, arthritis and sepsis. Catabolite control protein A (CcpA) is a major transcriptional regulator in S. suis type 2 that functions in catabolite control, specifically during growth on glucose or galactose. The regulation of central metabolism can affect the virulence of bacteria. In the present study, a metabolomics approach was used along with principal components analysis (PCA) and partial least-squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models and 37 metabolites were found that differed substantially between native S. suis and a mutant lacking CcpA. These results showed that CcpA is an important protein in S. suis type 2 for studying bacterial protein function.