RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 EsaB is a core component of the Staphylococcus aureus Type VII secretion system JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 151316 DO 10.1101/151316 A1 M. Guillermina Casabona A1 Grant Buchanan A1 Martin Zoltner A1 Catriona P. Harkins A1 Matthew T.G. Holden A1 Tracy Palmer YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/17/151316.abstract AB Type VII secretion systems (T7SS) are found in many bacteria and secrete proteins involved in virulence and bacterial competition. In Staphylococcus aureus the small ubiquitin-like EsaB protein has been previously implicated as having a regulatory role in the production of the EsxC substrate. Here we show that in the S. aureus RN6390 strain, EsaB does not genetically regulate production of any T7 substrates or components, but is indispensable for secretion activity. Consistent with EsaB being a core component of the T7SS, loss of either EsaB or EssC are associated with upregulation of a common set of iron acquisition genes. However, a further subset of genes were dysregulated only in the absence of EsaB. In addition, fractionation revealed that although an EsaB fusion to yellow fluorescent protein partially localised to the membrane, it was still membrane-localised when the T7SS was absent. Taken together our findings suggest that EsaB has T7SS-dependent and T7SS-independent roles in S. aureus.