This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Sogstad, M. K. R. Articles by Caugant, D. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Sogstad, M. K. R. Articles by Caugant, D. A.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 2006, p. 3225-3230, Vol. 44, No. 9
0095-1137/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.00524-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Molecular Characterization of Non-Penicillin-Susceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae in Norway

Maren K. R. Sogstad,¹ E. Arne Høiby,¹ and Dominique A. Caugant^1,2*

Division of Infectious Disease Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, P.O. Box 4404 Nydalen, NO-0403 Oslo,¹ Department of Oral Biology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway²

Received 10 March 2006/ Returned for modification 12 May 2006/ Accepted 5 July 2006

A total of 125 non-penicillin-susceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates were received at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in the period from 1995 to 2001. The strains were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility, serotyped, and genotyped by multilocus sequence typing (MLST); and their penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) were typed by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of their pbp genes. Of the 125 strains, 48 (38%) were fully resistant to penicillin and 77 (62%) were intermediately resistant to penicillin. Most of the strains resistant to penicillin were also resistant to one or several additional antibiotics. The most frequent serotypes among the non-penicillin-susceptible strains were 14, 9V, 19F, 23F, and 6B. MLST analysis showed a high degree of genetic diversity among the 119 strains tested, with a total of 74 different sequence types. Six of the 26 internationally known resistant clones were present; the Spain^9V-3 clone was the most frequent, with 19 isolates. A total of 74 (62%) of the isolates were related to 1 of the 26 international clones. Restriction enzyme analyses of the pbp1a, pbp2b, and pbp2x genes revealed 12, 12, and 19 different patterns, respectively; and a total of 43 different PBPs types were demonstrated. Our data indicate that the non-penicillin-susceptible strains in Norway are highly diverse genetically and that limited spread of the internationally known resistant strains occurred in the country in the period examined.

---

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of Infectious Disease Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, P.O. Box 4404 Nydalen, 0403 Oslo, Norway. Phone: 47 22 04 23 11. Fax: 47 22 04 25 18. E-mail: dominique.caugant{at}fhi.no.

---

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 2006, p. 3225-3230, Vol. 44, No. 9
0095-1137/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.00524-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Siira, L., Rantala, M., Jalava, J., Hakanen, A. J., Huovinen, P., Kaijalainen, T., Lyytikainen, O., Virolainen, A. (2009). Temporal Trends of Antimicrobial Resistance and Clonality of Invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae Isolates in Finland, 2002 to 2006. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 53: 2066-2073 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Hathaway, L. J., Brugger, S., Martynova, A., Aebi, S., Muhlemann, K. (2007). Use of the Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer for Rapid and Reproducible Molecular Typing of Streptococcus pneumoniae. J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 803-809 [Abstract] [Full Text]