MOLECULAR TYPING OF METHICILLIN-SUSCEPTIBLE STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS (MSSA), ISOLATED FROM MONKEYS, BASED ON COAGULASE GENE POLYMORPHISM

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is a very dangerous microorganism that causes more than 100 nosological forms of disease in humans and animals, including pneumonia, skin and soft tissue infections, food toxicoinfections, wound abscess, etc. Numerous studies on genotyping Staphylococcus aureus, isolated from humans, food and bovine mastitis have been carried out. The lack of information on the genotyping of these pathogens detected in monkeys living in captivity served as a stimulus to conduct a similar research, since staphylococcal infections in the primates are widespread. The present study is devoted to the study of the polymorphism of a variable region of the coagulase gene and to the typing of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from monkeys of different species kept at Adler monkey farm. 115 Staphylococcus aureus isolates were studied using phenotypic and molecular genetic methods. Genotyping was performed using PCR, real-time PCR and PCR with subsequent restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (PCR-RFLP). A real-time PCR analysis allowed to classify all Staphylococcus aureus as methicillin-susceptible staphylococci (MSSA). After amplification of a variable region of the coagulase gene, 4 types of amplicons of 600, 700, 800, and 900 bp were generated. This data demonstrates structural differences of this gene in the studied isolates. The coagulase gene of 900 bp prevailed. The use of the Cfo1 endonuclease allowed to identify 23 different restriction profiles of the coa gene, but only three of them predominated. Staphylococcus aureus bacteria with seven types of coagulase gene were found only in the lungs of monkeys that died of pneumonia. The results obtained suggest that these isolates have tropism for lung tissue. Among Staphylococcus aureus isolated from pneumonia cases, isolates with three types of the coa gene prevailed. Staphylococcus aureus of eleven types of coagulase gene can be attributed to the invasive isolates, since they were detected in the tissues of various organs. Staphylococcal infection in monkeys kept at the monkey farm is caused by genotypically heterogeneous population of Staphylococcus aureus.