TABLE 3.

Categorization and conservation of the genes in the S. aureus strains

General and specific COG	Commona	Not or poorly detectedb	Additionalc	Total
Metabolism
Amino acid transport and metabolism	133	36	1	170
Carbohydrate transport and metabolism	95	9	1	105
Coenzyme transport and metabolism	69	8		77
Energy production and conversion	82	6		88
Inorganic ion transport and metabolism	96	28	1	125
Lipid transport and metabolism	43	8		51
Nucleotide transport and metabolism	58	5		63
Secondary metabolites biosynthesis, transport, and catabolism	18	3		21
Cellular processes and signaling
Cell cycle control, cell division, and chromosome partitioning	16	7		23
Cell wall/membrane/envelope biogenesis	71	19	1	91
Defense mechanisms	25	18	5	48
Intracellular trafficking, secretion, and vesicular transport	15	3		18
Posttranslational modification, protein turnover, and chaperones	50	9		59
Signal transduction mechanisms	27	7	1	35
Information storage and processing
Replication, recombination, and repair	80	44	3	127
Transcription	92	24	1	117
Translation, ribosomal structure, and biogenesis	128	17		145
Poorly characterized
Function unknown	173	44	1	218
General function, prediction only	178	40		218
Not in COGs	198	315	19	532
Other	228	47	2	275
Total	1,875	697	36	2,608

^aGenes that were present in all strains tested in CGH.

^bGenes that were not detected at all (i.e., no signal in three independent hybridizations) or gave a low signal for at least one strain.

^cGenes that were present in at least one tested strain but not in N315.