Staphylococcus aureus(S.aureus) is an important human pathogen capable of causing a diverse range of infections.Once regarded as an opportunistic pathogen causing primarily nosocomial infections,recent years have seen the emergence of S.aureus strains capable of causing serious infection even in otherwise healthy human hosts.There has been much debate about whether this transition is a function of unique genotypic characteristics or differences in the expression of conserved virulence factors,but irrespective of this debate it is clear that the ability of S.aureus to cause infection in all of its diverse forms is heavily influenced by its ability to modulate gene expression in response to changing conditions within the human host.Indeed,the S.aureus genome encodes more than 100 transcriptional regulators that modulate the production of virulence factors either directly via interactions with cis elements associated with genes encoding virulence factors or indirectly through their complex interactionswith each other.The goal of this review is to summarize recent work describing these regulators and their contribution to defining S.aureus as a human pathogen. Staphylococcus aureus (anaureus) is an important human pathogen capable of causing a diverse range of infections. Infection as an opportunistic pathogen causing bacteria of nosocomial infections, recent years have seen the emergence of S. aureus otherwise healthy human hosts.There has been much debate about whether this transition is a function of unique genotypic characteristics or differences in the expression of conserved virulence factors, but irrespective of this debate it is clear that the ability of S.aureus to cause infection in all of its diverse forms is heavily influenced by its ability to modulate gene expression in response to changing conditions within the human host. Indeed, the S. aureus genome encodes more than 100 transcriptional regulators that modulate the production of virulence factors either directly via interactions with cis elements associated with genes encoding virulence factors or indirectly through their comple x interactionswith each other. The goal of this review is to summarize recent work describing these regulators and their contribution to defining S.aureus as a human pathogen.