Clonal distribution and differential occurrence of the enterotoxin gene cluster, egc, in carriage- versus bacteremia-associated isolates of Staphylococcus aureus

Alex van Belkum; Damian C Melles; Susan V Snijders; Willem B van Leeuwen; Heiman F L Wertheim; Jan L Nouwen; Henri A Verbrugh; Jerome Etienne

doi:10.1128/JCM.44.4.1555-1557.2006

Clonal distribution and differential occurrence of the enterotoxin gene cluster, egc, in carriage- versus bacteremia-associated isolates of Staphylococcus aureus

J Clin Microbiol. 2006 Apr;44(4):1555-7. doi: 10.1128/JCM.44.4.1555-1557.2006.

Authors

Alex van Belkum¹, Damian C Melles, Susan V Snijders, Willem B van Leeuwen, Heiman F L Wertheim, Jan L Nouwen, Henri A Verbrugh, Jerome Etienne

Affiliation

¹ Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Room L-313, Department of Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Dr. Molewaterplein 40, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Abstract

The Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin gene cluster, egc, was detected in isolates from healthy individuals and in those from patients with bacteremia. The egc genes cooccur and are slightly enriched in strains from healthy carriers (present in 63.7% of carriage-associated isolates versus 52.9% of invasive isolates; P = 0.03). Multilocus sequence typing revealed that successful staphylococcal clones usually harbor the egc locus.

MeSH terms

Bacteremia / microbiology*
Bacterial Typing Techniques
Carrier State / microbiology*
DNA, Bacterial / analysis
Enterotoxins / genetics*
Enterotoxins / metabolism
Humans
Multigene Family
Staphylococcal Infections / microbiology
Staphylococcus aureus / genetics
Staphylococcus aureus / isolation & purification*
Staphylococcus aureus / pathogenicity
Superantigens / genetics*
Superantigens / immunology

Substances

DNA, Bacterial
Enterotoxins
Superantigens