Bacteriophages of Staphylococcus aureus efficiently package various bacterial genes and mobile genetic elements including SCCmec with different frequencies
2013
Staphylococcus aureus is a serious human and veterinary
pathogen in which new strains with increasing virulence and
antimicrobial resistance occur due to acquiring new genes by
horizontal transfer. It is generally accepted that temperate
bacteriophages play a major role in gene transfer. In this
study, we proved the presence of various bacterial genes of the
S. aureus COL strain directly within the phage particles via
qPCR and quantified their packaging frequency. Nonparametric
statistical analysis showed that transducing bacteriophages 11,
80 and 80lpha of serogroup B, in contrast to serogroup A
bacteriophage 81, efficiently package selected chromosomal
genes localized in 4 various loci of the chromosome and 8 genes
carried on variable elements like staphylococcal cassette
chromosome SCCmec, staphylococcal pathogenicity island SaPI1,
genomic islands Saalpha and Sabeta, and plasmids with various
frequency. Bacterial gene copy number per ng of DNA isolated
from phage particles ranged between 1.05x10E2 for the tetK
plasmid gene and 3.86x10E5 for the SaPI1 integrase gene. The
new and crucial finding that serogroup B bacteriophages can
package concurrently ccrA1 (1.16x10E4) and mecA (1.26x10E4)
located at SCCmec type I into their capsids indicates that
generalized transduction plays an important role in the
evolution and emergence of new methicillin-resistant clones.
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