Abstract
Infections caused by community-acquired (CA)-methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have been reported worldwide. We assessed whether any common genetic markers existed among 117 CA-MRSA isolates from the United States, France, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and Western Samoa by performing polymerase chain reaction for 24 virulence factors and the methicillin-resistance determinant. The genetic background of the strain was analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). The CA-MRSA strains shared a type IV SCCmec cassette and the Panton-Valentine leukocidin locus, whereas the distribution of the other toxin genes was quite specific to the strains from each continent. PFGE and MLST analysis indicated distinct genetic backgrounds associated with each geographic origin, although predominantly restricted to the agr3 background. Within each continent, the genetic background of CA-MRSA strains did not correspond to that of the hospital-acquired MRSA.
Highlights
Infections caused by community-acquired (CA)-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have been reported worldwide
We found that community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections in France are caused by a single clone producing the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) [3]
Analysis of a set of CA-MRSA strains from the United States and Australia confirmed the presence of SCCmec IVa in most of them, and genetic comparison of the CAMRSA by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) indicated that they belonged to five clonal complexes, two of which predominated [4]
Summary
Infections caused by community-acquired (CA)-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have been reported worldwide. Analysis of a set of CA-MRSA strains from the United States and Australia confirmed the presence of SCCmec IVa in most of them, and genetic comparison of the CAMRSA by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) indicated that they belonged to five clonal complexes, two of which predominated [4]. This finding suggested that CA-MRSA have arisen from diverse genetic backgrounds rather than the worldwide spread of a single clone [4]. The aim of this study was to determine whether the PVL gene represents a stable marker of the CA-MRSA strains worldwide and whether any other common genetic traits such as toxin gene and the accessory gene regulator (agr) profiles can be identified
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