PURPOSE To characterize methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains by molecular typing based on polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) of spa gene and to assess the utility of spa genotyping over bacteriophage typing in the discrimination of the strains. MATERIALS AND METHODS Studies were undertaken on 125 MRSA strains representing the mo...

The spa gene of Staphylococcus aureus encodes protein A and is used for typing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). We used sequence typing of the spa gene repeat region to study the epidemiology of MRSA at a German university hospital. One hundred seven and 84 strains were studied during two periods of 10 and 4 months, respectively. Repeats and spa types were determined by Ri...

In this study, we report the molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) among veterinary students and personnel in Malaysia. Nasal and oral swabs were collected from 103 veterinary medicine students and 28 personnel from a veterinary hospital. Antibiotic sensitivity test (AST), minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) test, and PCR amplifications of nucA and mecA...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most significant pathogens associated with health care. For efficient surveillance, control and outbreak investigation, S. aureus typing is essential. A high resolution melting curve analysis was developed and evaluated for rapid identification of the most frequent spa types found in an Austrian hospital consortium covering 2,435 beds. A...

Staphylococcal protein A (Spa) is an important virulence factor of Staphylococcus aureus. Transcription of the spa determinant occurs during the exponential growth phase and is repressed when the cells enter the postexponential growth phase. Regulation of spa expression has been found to be complicated, with regulation involving multiple factors, including Agr, SarA, SarS, SarT, Rot, and MgrA. ...

Increased frequency of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in hospitalized patients requires rapid and reliable characterization of isolates for control of MRSA spread in hospitals. This study evaluated polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) as a molecular typing technique for MRSA strains on the basis of protein A (spa) and coagulase (coa) ...

OBJECTIVE spa-typing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been used widely in clinical diagnostics and epidemiological studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate high-resolution melting (HRM) as a rapid and cost-effective method, to replace DNA-sequencing, for spa-typing in a global collection of 50 MRSA isolates. METHODS The polymorphic X region of the spa gene was a...

The prevalence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin sensitiveStaphylococcus aureus (MSSA) carriage among poultry and poultry farmers in Malaysia is largely unknown.In the current investigation, chickens and chicken farmers from 30 chicken farms were screened for MRSAand S. aureus carriage. The genetic characteristics of the isolates were determined through multi...

The gene coding for protein A (spa) of Staphylococcus aureus 8325-4 has been inactivated by substituting part of the spa coding sequence for a DNA fragment specifying resistance to ethidium bromide. The in vitro-constructed spa::EtBrr substitution mutation was introduced into the S. aureus chromosome by recombinational allele replacement. Southern blot hybridization showed that the in vitro-con...