What is it about?
We examined staphylokinase production in 257 Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from hospital patients and outpatient carriers. Up to 20% of the strains did not produce staphylokinase, and all of them lacked the sak gene responsible for its production. These strains were genetically diverse and belonged to different bacteriophage groups. However, staphylokinase-negative isolates occurred particularly often in phage group II and were mainly associated with phages 3C and 55.
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Why is it important?
Staphylokinase contributes to the virulence of S. aureus, yet a notable proportion of clinical and carriage strains lack this factor. Understanding their bacteriophage profiles may provide new insights into the diversity, evolution and pathogenic potential of S. aureus populations.
Perspectives
We believe these findings highlight the important role of bacteriophages in shaping the virulence characteristics of S. aureus. They also show that strains lacking staphylokinase are not a uniform group and may circulate in both patients and healthy carriers.
Prof Katarzyna Maria Garbacz
Gdanski Uniwersytet Medyczny
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Bacteriophage analysis of staphylokinase-negative Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from people, Journal of Basic Microbiology, December 2010, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/jobm.201000019.
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