Staphylococcus aureus strains in the "52, 52A, 80, 81 complex"

Characteristics of a new epidemic MRSA in Germany ancestral to United Kingdom EMRSA 15

In 1996 a new epidemic MRSA emerged in three hospitals North of Berlin. This strain, Barnim epidemic MRSA, was isolated in 15 hospitals in Northern Germany in 1997 and 29 hospitals throughout Germany in 1998. Isolates of this clone are non-typeable by phages, its resistance phenotype is PEN, OXA, ERY, CLI, CIP (genotype: mecA, ermC, mutations in grlA and gyrA). The Sma I macrorestriction pattern corresponds to particular phage group II strains which is confirmed by the 16S-23S rRNA gene spacer pattern. Isolates of this clone differ by less than three Sma I macrorestriction fragments from isolates of the EMRSA15 clone from the United Kingdom, the most common epidemic MRSA isolates in the United Kingdom in recent years. Both epidemic strains produce enterotoxin C and possess the sec determinant for this toxin, the configuration of the mec regulon is mecI-, mecRB+, mecRC+. Both share the same Alu I pattern of PCR amplimers of the 3' end region of the coagulase gene. EMRSA 15 and Barnim EMRSA share a common multilocus sequence type indicating a recent, shared evolutionary origin.

Identification and molecular characterization of a gene homologous to epr (endopeptidase resistance gene) in Staphylococcus aureus

Certain Staphylococci possess a gene called epr or lif that renders the cells resistant to lysis by glycylglycine endopeptidase. The resistance is conferred by modifying the amino acid composition of interpeptide chains in cell-wall peptidoglycan by increasing serine content and decreasing glycine content. A gene homologous to epr/lif was cloned from S. aureus RN450 genomic libraries and designated eprh. eprh was found to localize 27bp downstream of a novel cell-wall hydrolase gene lytN, which is in the same orientation with eprh. By analogy with epr/lif, eprh is suggested to be involved in the transfer of certain amino acids, possibly serine or amino acids other than glycine, to interpeptide chains of cell-wall peptidoglycan. Unlike epr/lif, overexpression of eprh in S. aureus did not result in an increased resistance to lysostaphin. Insertional inactivation of eprh or lytN by Campbell-type integration did not affect the susceptibility of the cells to lysostaphin, either. These results suggest that eprh and lytN are not essential genes for S. aureus growth. The physiological function of eprh remains unknown.

epr, which encodes glycylglycine endopeptidase resistance, is homologous to femAB and affects serine content of peptidoglycan cross bridges in Staphylococcus capitis and Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus capitis EPK1 produces a glycylglycine endopeptidase, ALE-1 (M. Sugai, T. Fujiwara, T. Akiyama, M. Ohara, H. Komatsuzawa, S. Inoue, and H. Suginaka, J. Bacteriol. 179:1193-1202, 1997), which hydrolyzes interpeptide pentaglycine chains of cell wall peptidoglycan of S. aureus. Characterizations of the enzyme activity and cloning of ale-1 revealed that ALE-1 is very similar to prolysostaphin produced by S. simulans bv. staphylolyticus. Strain EPK1 is resistant to lysis by ALE-1 and by lysostaphin. A gene that renders the cells resistant to glycylglycine endopeptidase (epr) was found 322 bp upstream of and in the opposite orientation to ale-1. The deduced amino acid sequence of epr showed similarities to FemA and FemB, which have been characterized as factors essential for methicillin resistance of S. aureus. Inactivation of either femA or femB causes decreased resistance to methicillin, increased resistance to lysostaphin, and decreased glycine content in the interpeptide chains of peptidoglycan. Therefore, femAB is suggested to be involved in the addition of glycine to pentapeptide peptidoglycan precursor. S. aureus with epr on a multicopy plasmid had phenotypes similar to those of femAB mutants except that it did not alter resistance level to methicillin. These results suggest that epr and femAB belong to the protein family involved in adding amino acids to the pentapeptide peptidoglycan precursor and that epr is involved in the addition of serine to the pentapeptide.

Staphylococcus aureus strains of type 95. Spread of a single clone

Staphylococcus aureus strains of type 95 in Denmark have increased to a frequency of 20% of the total S. aureus population. A clonal origin and possible subdivision of these strains have been discussed. In the present investigation 35 epidemiologically unrelated S. aureus strains of type 95 as well as reference strains of other types have been analysed by other typing techniques including lectin-typing, multilocus enzyme electrophoresis and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of genomic restriction fragments. No subdivision could be achieved based on any of these methods and a clonal origin seems therefore possible.

Characterization of plasmids that confer inducible resistance to 14-membered macrolides and streptogramin type B antibiotics in Staphylococcus aureus

During a period from 1978 to 1989, 413 Staphylococcus aureus strains were isolated at 27 different geographical regions in Hungary; they exhibited an inducible resistance to the 14-membered macrolides and streptogramin type B antibiotics, but not to the 16-membered macrolides and lincosamides: this resistance is referred to as PMS resistance phenotype. The isolates were mostly associated with patients suffering from staphylococcal diseases and with hygienic screenings in hospitals and closed communities. They were rarely isolated from food-poisoning cases, food hygienic screenings, or animal sources. Strains with PMS resistance phenotype were resistant to penicillin (99.0%), tetracycline (78.7%), and chloramphenicol (63.0%); however, they were susceptible to oxacillin. Most of them (94.2%) belonged to the phage type 52-complex. The determinant for PMS phenotype was located on plasmids, which also encoded beta-lactamase production and cadmium ion resistance, but not arsenate resistance. Three types of plasmid with molecular size of 50 kilobases (kb), 23.8 kb, and 16.8 kb, were found among the strains with PMS resistance phenotype, and the 50 kb and 23.8 kb plasmids also encoded mercury resistance. The 16.8 kb and 23.8 kb plasmids belonged to incompatibility group 1.

Purification and characterization of Staphylococcus aureus type 8 capsular polysaccharide

Clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus have been previously classified into eight types on the basis of their capsular polysaccharide. The high prevalence of the type 8 capsular polysaccharide among bacteremic isolates suggests the importance of this capsular antigen in staphylococcal disease. The capsular polysaccharide was purified from extracts of three clinical isolates of S. aureus type 8 of different geographic and temperal origin by ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration. Gas chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance showed that the type 8 capsular polysaccharide is composed of O-acetyl groups, N-acetylfucosamine, and an aminouronic acid similar to N-acetylgalactosaminouronic acid. The purified polysaccharide reacted only with type 8 antiserum in double diffusion experiments. Our analysis shows that the type 8 polysaccharide is both chemically and serologically distinct from teichoic acid and previously characterized polysaccharides of S. aureus.

The sensitivity of phage DNA and plasmid DNA for a restriction enzyme for Staphylococcus aureus

In Staphylococcus aureus transduction of different tetracycline and chloramphenicol plasmids with a group I/III modification was possible to group I and III strains. Group II strains, containing a restriction endonuclease, had a restriction both for the phage and the plasmids: two restriction-deficient group II strains were good acceptors for these plasmids.

Occurrence of a class II restriction endonuclease in Staphylococcus aureus

The occurrence of class II restriction endonucleases (enzymes that both recognize and cleave a specific nucleotide sequence in deoxyribonucleic acid [DNA] in Staphylococcus aureus has been investigated by analysis of crude extracts obtained from different propagating strains of the International Phage Typing System. Of the four main groups of strains in the International System, only extracts of group II strains were found to contain class II restriction endonucleases. The identical cleavage patterns obtained by incubation of different DNAs with cell extracts of group II strains suggest that these enzymes all recognize and cleave the same nucleotide sequence. This recognition site has been determined to be 5'-G-A-T-C-3'-3'-C-T-A-G-5' for the prototype of these enzymes, Sau3AI (J. S. Sussenbach et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 3:3192-3202, 1976). Evidence is presented that the classification of group II strains is based on restriction modification and is correlated with the presence of a class II restriction enoduclease that recognizes and cleaves the above sequence.

Lysogenic conversion for multiple characters in a strain of Staphylococcus aureus

Lysogenization of nonlysogenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus was performed with two different bacteriophages, LS1 and LS2, that were unable to plaque on any of the strains of S. aureus tested. Infection of recipient strains was achieved when protoplasts were inoculated with LS1 or LS2 or when bacterial cultures were simultaneously inoculated with a virulent phage together with LS1 or LS2. Lysogenization was demonstrated by changes in phenotypic characters of the host strain and by liberation of bacteriophages from the modified strains as shown by electron microscopic examination. The lysogenic strains differed from the host strains by the following characters: they were coagulase, deoxyribonuclease, and lipase negative; they were untypable by the basic set of phages; they did not ferment mannitol under anaerobic conditions; and they produced only l-(+)-lactic acid by glucose fermentation. Their cell walls contained less glycine and concomitantly more serine than those of the host strains. Furthermore, they were devoid of protein A. Conversely, some antigenic factors as well as the presence of ribitol in the cell wall teichoic acid, indicated a parental relationship between the host strains and the derived lysogenic ones. Phages LS1 and LS2 could be excluded from the lysogenic strains by invading phages, and the revertant nonlysogenic strains recovered all of the characteristics of the initial host strains. It was thus concluded that the phenomenon described was due to lysogenic conversion. The origin of phages LS1 and LS2 is discussed.