Open Access
Comparison of Genotypes and Enterotoxin Genes Between Staphylococcus aureus Isolates from Blood and Nasal Colonizers in a Korean Hospital
Author(s) -
Kyong Ran Peck,
Jin Yang Baek,
Jae-Hoon Song,
Kwan Soo Ko
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of korean medical science/journal of korean medical science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1598-6357
pISSN - 1011-8934
DOI - 10.3346/jkms.2009.24.4.585
Subject(s) - staphylococcus aureus , multilocus sequence typing , microbiology and biotechnology , enterotoxin , sccmec , genotype , typing , methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus , biology , polymerase chain reaction , staphylococcal infections , gene , virology , medicine , genetics , bacteria , escherichia coli
In this study, we investigated the genetic background of 70 Staphylococcus aureus isolates (36 methicillin-resistant S. aureus [MRSA] and 34 methicillin-susceptible S. aureus [MSSA]) obtained from blood at a Korean tertiary-care hospital, using spa typing, multilocus sequence typing, and SCCmec typing. In addition, the prevalence of enterotoxin (sea, seb, sec, sed, see, seg, seh, sei, and sek), tst, and pvl genes among the samples was assessed via polymerase chain reaction, and the results were compared with those of 95 isolates of S. aureus obtained from nasal swabs. All MRSA isolates from blood, except one, belonged to three major clones: sequence type (ST)5-MRSA-II, ST72-MRSA-II (or IVA), and ST239-MRSA-III, among which ST5-MRSA-II was the predominant clone. The prevalence of enterotoxin genes in the S. aureus isolates obtained from blood differed significantly from those from the nasal swabs for the sea, seb, sec, and seh gene. In particular, the seb and sec genes were detected exclusively in the MRSA isolates of ST5 or spa-CC002, thereby suggesting the co-adaptation of virulence genes with the genetic background and their contribution to biological fitness.