Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Emerging Infectious Diseases logoLink to Emerging Infectious Diseases
. 2001 Mar-Apr;7(2):323–326. doi: 10.3201/eid0702.010236

Molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

B Shopsin 1, B N Kreiswirth 1
PMCID: PMC2631714  PMID: 11294733

Abstract

Subtyping methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates and tracking nosocomial infections have evolved from phenotypic to genotypic approaches; most laboratories now depend on pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). We discuss the limitations of current image-based genotyping methods, including PFGE, and the advantages (including ease of entering data into a database) of using DNA sequence analysis to control MRSA infections in health-care facilities.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (128.6 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Boyce J. M., Jackson M. M., Pugliese G., Batt M. D., Fleming D., Garner J. S., Hartstein A. I., Kauffman C. A., Simmons M., Weinstein R. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA): a briefing for acute care hospitals and nursing facilities. The AHA Technical Panel on Infections Within Hospitals. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 1994 Feb;15(2):105–115. doi: 10.1086/646870. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Enright M. C., Day N. P., Davies C. E., Peacock S. J., Spratt B. G. Multilocus sequence typing for characterization of methicillin-resistant and methicillin-susceptible clones of Staphylococcus aureus. J Clin Microbiol. 2000 Mar;38(3):1008–1015. doi: 10.1128/jcm.38.3.1008-1015.2000. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Frénay H. M., Bunschoten A. E., Schouls L. M., van Leeuwen W. J., Vandenbroucke-Grauls C. M., Verhoef J., Mooi F. R. Molecular typing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on the basis of protein A gene polymorphism. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 1996 Jan;15(1):60–64. doi: 10.1007/BF01586186. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Hacek D. M., Suriano T., Noskin G. A., Kruszynski J., Reisberg B., Peterson L. R. Medical and economic benefit of a comprehensive infection control program that includes routine determination of microbial clonality. Am J Clin Pathol. 1999 May;111(5):647–654. doi: 10.1093/ajcp/111.5.647. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Kreiswirth B., Kornblum J., Arbeit R. D., Eisner W., Maslow J. N., McGeer A., Low D. E., Novick R. P. Evidence for a clonal origin of methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus. Science. 1993 Jan 8;259(5092):227–230. doi: 10.1126/science.8093647. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Maiden M. C., Bygraves J. A., Feil E., Morelli G., Russell J. E., Urwin R., Zhang Q., Zhou J., Zurth K., Caugant D. A. Multilocus sequence typing: a portable approach to the identification of clones within populations of pathogenic microorganisms. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Mar 17;95(6):3140–3145. doi: 10.1073/pnas.95.6.3140. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Maslow J. N., Mulligan M. E., Arbeit R. D. Molecular epidemiology: application of contemporary techniques to the typing of microorganisms. Clin Infect Dis. 1993 Aug;17(2):153–164. doi: 10.1093/clinids/17.2.153. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Roberts R. B., Tennenberg A. M., Eisner W., Hargrave J., Drusin L. M., Yurt R., Kreiswirth B. N. Outbreak in a New York City teaching hospital burn center caused by the Iberian epidemic clone of MRSA. Microb Drug Resist. 1998 Fall;4(3):175–183. doi: 10.1089/mdr.1998.4.175. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Roberts R. B., de Lencastre A., Eisner W., Severina E. P., Shopsin B., Kreiswirth B. N., Tomasz A. Molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in 12 New York hospitals. MRSA Collaborative Study Group. J Infect Dis. 1998 Jul;178(1):164–171. doi: 10.1086/515610. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Roman R. S., Smith J., Walker M., Byrne S., Ramotar K., Dyck B., Kabani A., Nicolle L. E. Rapid geographic spread of a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain. Clin Infect Dis. 1997 Sep;25(3):698–705. doi: 10.1086/513758. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Rubin R. J., Harrington C. A., Poon A., Dietrich K., Greene J. A., Moiduddin A. The economic impact of Staphylococcus aureus infection in New York City hospitals. Emerg Infect Dis. 1999 Jan-Feb;5(1):9–17. doi: 10.3201/eid0501.990102. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. STEWART G. T., HOLT R. J. Evolutio of natural resistance to the newer penicillins. Br Med J. 1963 Feb 2;1(5326):308–311. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.5326.308. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Scheckler W. E., Brimhall D., Buck A. S., Farr B. M., Friedman C., Garibaldi R. A., Gross P. A., Harris J. A., Hierholzer W. J., Jr, Martone W. J. Requirements for infrastructure and essential activities of infection control and epidemiology in hospitals: a consensus panel report. Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 1998 Feb;19(2):114–124. doi: 10.1086/647779. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Shopsin B., Gomez M., Montgomery S. O., Smith D. H., Waddington M., Dodge D. E., Bost D. A., Riehman M., Naidich S., Kreiswirth B. N. Evaluation of protein A gene polymorphic region DNA sequencing for typing of Staphylococcus aureus strains. J Clin Microbiol. 1999 Nov;37(11):3556–3563. doi: 10.1128/jcm.37.11.3556-3563.1999. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Shopsin B., Gomez M., Waddington M., Riehman M., Kreiswirth B. N. Use of coagulase gene (coa) repeat region nucleotide sequences for typing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains. J Clin Microbiol. 2000 Sep;38(9):3453–3456. doi: 10.1128/jcm.38.9.3453-3456.2000. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Tenover F. C., Arbeit R. D., Goering R. V. How to select and interpret molecular strain typing methods for epidemiological studies of bacterial infections: a review for healthcare epidemiologists. Molecular Typing Working Group of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 1997 Jun;18(6):426–439. doi: 10.1086/647644. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. van Belkum A., Riewerts Eriksen N., Sijmons M., van Leeuwen W., VandenBergh M., Kluytmans J., Espersen F., Verbrugh H. Are variable repeats in the spa gene suitable targets for epidemiological studies of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains? Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 1996 Sep;15(9):768–770. doi: 10.1007/BF01691972. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. van Belkum A., Scherer S., van Alphen L., Verbrugh H. Short-sequence DNA repeats in prokaryotic genomes. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 1998 Jun;62(2):275–293. doi: 10.1128/mmbr.62.2.275-293.1998. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. van Leeuwen W., van Belkum A., Kreiswirth B., Verbrugh H. Genetic diversification of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as a function of prolonged geographic dissemination and as measured by binary typing and other genotyping methods. Res Microbiol. 1998 Jul-Aug;149(7):497–507. doi: 10.1016/s0923-2508(98)80004-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Emerging Infectious Diseases are provided here courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

RESOURCES