Previous Article | Next Article 
Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 2006, p. 4515-4527, Vol. 44, No. 12
0095-1137/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.00985-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Predominance of Clones Carrying Panton-Valentine Leukocidin Genes among Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strains Isolated in Japanese Hospitals from 1979 to 1985
Xiao Xue Ma,
Teruyo Ito,*
Piriyaporn Chongtrakool, and
Keiichi Hiramatsu
Juntendo University, Department of Bacteriology, Tokyo, Japan
Received 11 May 2006/
Returned for modification 3 July 2006/
Accepted 5 October 2006
We examined 97 strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated between 1979 and 1985, the period of time when the appearance of MRSA strains increased, and we determined that these strains are distinct from the MRSA clones predominating in today's Japanese hospitals. Type IV staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) strains were the most frequent, comprising 53.6% of all strains, followed by type I (22.7%) and type II (21.6%) SCCmec strains. Among the type IV SCCmec strains, the frequencies of two new subtypes, type IV.3 (IVc) and type IV.4 (IVd), were very high, comprising 38.1 and 10.3% of all strains, respectively. Forty-four of the 97 strains (45.3%) were Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) positive. Among the PVL-positive strains, sequence type 30 (ST30)-SCCmec type IV strains producing type 4 coagulase were the most frequent. This is in striking contrast to the MRSA strains isolated in the 1990s, most of which were ST5-SCCmec type II strains producing type 2 coagulase and positive for the toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 gene. We also identified a new PVL-carrying prophage lysogenized in a type IV.3 SCCmec strain, 81/108.
108PVL was distinct from the three extant PVL-carrying phages and was presumed to be carried by ST30-type IV.3 SCCmec strains isolated in Japan. These results provide genetic bases for the transition of MRSA clones in Japan that is commonly considered the transition from coagulase type 4 MRSA strains to coagulase type 2 MRSA strains. The results also suggested that MRSA strains that predominated between 1979 and 1985 were generated from PVL-positive methicillin-susceptible S. aureus strains through the integration of SCCmec elements.
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Juntendo University, Department of Bacteriology, Hongo 1-1-1 Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan. Phone: 81-3-5802-1041. Fax: 81-3-5684-7830. E-mail:
teruybac{at}med.juntendo.ac.jp.
Published ahead of print on 18 October 2006.
Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 2006, p. 4515-4527, Vol. 44, No. 12
0095-1137/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.00985-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Vindel, A., Cuevas, O., Cercenado, E., Marcos, C., Bautista, V., Castellares, C., Trincado, P., Boquete, T., Perez-Vazquez, M., Marin, M., Bouza, E., and the Spanish Group for the Study of Staphylococ,
(2009). Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Spain: Molecular Epidemiology and Utility of Different Typing Methods. J. Clin. Microbiol.
47: 1620-1627
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Berglund, C., Ito, T., Ma, X. X., Ikeda, M., Watanabe, S., Soderquist, B., Hiramatsu, K.
(2009). Genetic diversity of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus carrying type IV SCCmec in Orebro County and the western region of Sweden. J Antimicrob Chemother
63: 32-41
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Ma, X. X., Ito, T., Kondo, Y., Cho, M., Yoshizawa, Y., Kaneko, J., Katai, A., Higashiide, M., Li, S., Hiramatsu, K.
(2008). Two Different Panton-Valentine Leukocidin Phage Lineages Predominate in Japan. J. Clin. Microbiol.
46: 3246-3258
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Berglund, C., Ito, T., Ikeda, M., Ma, X. X., Soderquist, B., Hiramatsu, K.
(2008). Novel Type of Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec in a Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strain Isolated in Sweden. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother.
52: 3512-3516
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Kishii, K., Ito, T., Watanabe, S., Okuzumi, K., Hiramatsu, K.
(2008). Recurrence of heterogeneous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) among the MRSA clinical isolates in a Japanese university hospital. J Antimicrob Chemother
62: 324-328
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Rossney, A. S., Shore, A. C., Morgan, P. M., Fitzgibbon, M. M., O'Connell, B., Coleman, D. C.
(2007). The Emergence and Importation of Diverse Genotypes of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Harboring the Panton-Valentine Leukocidin Gene (pvl) Reveal that pvl Is a Poor Marker for Community-Acquired MRSA Strains in Ireland. J. Clin. Microbiol.
45: 2554-2563
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Maeda, Y., Millar, B. C., Loughrey, A., Goldsmith, C. E., Rooney, P. J., Moore, J. E., Rao, J., Buckley, T., Egan, C., Dooley, J. S. G., Lowery, C. J., Matsuda, M.
(2007). Community-associated MRSA SCCmec type IVd in Irish equids. Vet Rec.
161: 35-36
[Full Text]