A variety of methods for genotyping Staphylococcus aureus isolates exists: the two most widely used methods are pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Here, we describe a sequence-based genotyping method based on genes encoding S. aureus superantigen-like proteins, which belong to a family of exotoxins called staphylococcal exotoxins. The sequences of PCR...

A multilocus sequence typing (MLST) system has been reported previously for Campylobacter jejuni to both differentiate strains and identify clonal lineages. However, sequence variation at the MLST loci prevents its use for closely related Campylobacter species. We describe herein an expanded MLST method to include three clinically relevant Campylobacter species, C. coli, C. lari, and C. upsalie...

OBJECTIVES Recently, we reported a high prevalence (16%) of urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis infections among women in a rural setting in South Africa. Molecular epidemiological studies on C. trachomatis infections could provide insights into the characteristics of this epidemic, yet such data are not available. The objective of this study was therefore to assess the distribution of C. trachoma...

Background. Central intermediary metabolism (CIM) in bacteria is defined as a set of metabolic biochemical reactions within a cell, which is essential for the cell to survive in response to environmental perturbations. The genes associated with CIM are commonly found in both pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains. As these genes are involved in vital metabolic processes of bacteria, we explored ...

Mycoplasma synoviae (MS) is a poultry pathogen that has had an increasing incidence and economic impact over the past few years. Strain identification is necessary for outbreak investigation, infection source identification, and facilitating prevention and control as well as eradication efforts. Currently, a segment of the variable lipoprotein hemagglutinin A (vlhA) gene (420 bp) is the only ta...

Multi-Locus Sequence Typing (MLST) of Streptococcus pneumoniae is based on the sequence of seven housekeeping gene fragments. The analysis of MLST allelic profiles by eBURST allows the grouping of genetically related strains into Clonal Complexes (CCs) including those genotypes with a common descent from a predicted ancestor. However, the increasing use of MLST to characterize S. pneumoniae str...

OBJECTIVES To perform the first multinational Enterobacter cloacae clonality study, using the MLST scheme newly developed in Japan. METHODS The analysis included 195 rectal carriage E. cloacae isolates resistant to expanded-spectrum cephalosporins (ESCs), collected from patients in 12 hospital units across Europe and Israel. All of the isolates were typed by PFGE and 173 isolates were subject...

We applied multilocus sequence typing (MLST) to investigate the population structure and mode of reproduction of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii (serotype A). This MLST system utilizes 12 unlinked polymorphic loci, which are dispersed on nine different chromosomes, and allows the unambiguous identification of closely related strains of serotype A. We compared MLST analyses with the conventi...

AIMS To determine the antimicrobial resistant profiles and clonality of Campylobacter coli isolated from clinically ill humans and retail meats. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 98 C. coli isolates (20 from humans and 78 from retail meats) were phenotypically characterized. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done using agar dilution method for ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, erythromycin and d...