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J. Clin. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/JCM.02453-07
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Validation of a Virulence and Epidemiology (VirEp) DNA microarray for Staphylococcus aureus

Centre for Healthcare Associated Infections, Institute of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation, CBS Building, University Park, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: richard.james{at}nottingham.ac.uk.

	Abstract

The human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus is isolated and characterized using traditional culture and sensitivity methodologies that are slow and offer limited information on the organism. In contrast, DNA microarray technology can provide detailed clinically-relevant information on the isolate by detecting the presence or absence of a large number of virulence associated genes simultaneously in a single assay. We have developed and validated a novel, cost-effective multi-well microarray for the identification and characterization of Staphylococcus aureus. The array comprises 84 gene targets, including species-specific, antibiotic resistance, toxin and other virulence-associated genes, that is capable of examining 13 different isolates simultaneously, together with a reference control strain. Analysis of S. aureus isolates whose complete genome sequence has been determined (Mu50, N315, MW2, MRSA252, MSSA476) demonstrated that the array can reliably detect the combination of genes known to be present in these isolates. Characterization of a further 43 S. aureus isolates by microarray and PFGE has demonstrated the ability of the array to differentiate between isolates representative of a spectrum of S. aureus types including MSSA, MRSA, CA-MRSA and VRSA and simultaneously detect clinically relevant virulence determinants.