Analysis of the genetic variability of virulence-related loci in epidemic clones of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

ABSTRACT: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates have previously been classified into major epidemic clonal types by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis in combination with multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec typing. We aimed to investigate whether genetic variability in potentially polymorphic domains of virulence-related factors could provide another level of differentiation in a diverse collection of epidemic MRSA clones. The target regions of strains representative of epidemic clones and genetically related methicillin-susceptible S. aureus isolates from the 1960s that were sequenced included the R domains of clfA and clfB; the D, W, and M regions of fnbA and fnbB; and three regions in the agr operon. Sequence variation ranged from very

SUBMITTER: Gomes AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC538922 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature