The Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec type V from Staphylococcus aureus ST398 is packaged into bacteriophage capsids

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Authors

CHLEBOWICZ Monika A. MAŠLAŇOVÁ Ivana KUNTOVÁ Lucie GRUNDMANN Hajo PANTŮČEK Roman DOŠKAŘ Jiří VAN DIJL Jan Maarten BUIST Girbe

Year of publication 2014
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source International Journal of Medical Microbiology
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1438422114000617
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmm.2014.05.010
Field Genetics and molecular biology
Keywords Staphylococcus aureus; ST398; SCCmec; Transduction; Bacteriophage
Attached files
Description The Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec (SCCmec) confers methicillin resistance to Staphylococcus aureus. While SCCmec is generally regarded as a mobile genetic element, the precise mechanisms by which large SCCmec elements are exchanged between staphylococci have remained enigmatic. In the present studies, we observed that the clinical methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolate UMCG-M4 with the sequence type 398 contains four prophages belonging to the serological groups A, B and Fa. Previous studies have shown that certain serological group B bacteriophages of S. aureus are capable of generalized transduction. We therefore assessed the transducing capabilities of the phages from strain UMCG-M4. The results show that some of these phages can indeed transduce plasmid pT181 to the recipient S. aureus strain RN4220. Therefore, we also investigated the possible involvement of these transducing phages in the transmission of the large SCCmec type V (5C2&5) element of S. aureus UMCG-M4. While no transduction of the complete SCCmec element was observed, we were able to demonstrate that purified phage particles did contain large parts of the SCCmec element of the donor strain, including the methicillin resistance gene mecA. This shows that staphylococcal phages can encapsulate the resistance determinant mecA of a large SCCmec type V (5C2&5) element, which may lead to its transfer to other staphylococci.
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