A link between virulence and ecological abundance in natural populations of Staphylococcus aureus.
Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of severe infection in humans and yet is carried without symptoms by a large proportion of the population. We used multilocus sequence typing to characterize isolates of S. aureus recovered from asymptomatic nasal carriage and from episodes of severe disease within a defined population. We identified a number of frequently carried genotypes that were disproportionately common as causes of disease, even taking into account their relative abundance among carriage isolates. The existence of these ecologically abundant hypervirulent clones suggests that factors promoting the ecological fitness of this important pathogen also increase its virulence.
Day
N P
NP
Centre for Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK. nick.day@ndm.ox.ac.uk
Moore
C E
CE
Enright
M C
MC
Berendt
A R
AR
Smith
J M
JM
Murphy
M F
MF
Peacock
S J
SJ
Spratt
B G
BG
Feil
E J
EJ
D002353:Carrier State / Q000382:microbiology*; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000382:microbiology; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D009666:Nose / Q000382:microbiology; D017354:Point Mutation; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D014774:Virulence