Table 3.

Main Staphylococcus aureus toxins encoded on the accessory genome

Gene/genomic region/plasmid	Functional role	Comments
PVL locus (lukF-PV, lukS-PV)	Pore-forming toxin targeting polymorphonuclear leucocytes	Phage-encoded toxin associated with necrotising pneumonia or severe skin and soft tissue formation
lukD/E, lukG/H	Pore-forming toxins targeting polymorphonuclear leucocytes	Located on a pathogenicity island (LukDE), they act synergistically with PVL
psm-mec locus	Cytolytic capacity, biofilm formation, methicillin resistance, cell spreading and expression of other virulence factors [70]	This locus may also be found in CoNS and could play a major role in CoNS sepsis [71]
eta, etb, etd	Exfoliative toxin A, B and D	Toxins involved in the pathogenesis of bullous impetigo and staphylococcal scaled-skin syndrome
se(a-e), se(g-j), se(r-t), sel(k-q), sel(u-w), tsst-1	Staphylococcal enterotoxins and enterotoxin-like toxins	Superantigens associated with S. aureus food poisoning and toxic shock syndrome

Adapted from Grumann et al. [72]