title: Prevalence of agr specificity groups among Staphylococcus aureus strains colonizing children and their guardians.
abstract: PCR-based assays were used to evaluate agr locus nucleotide polymorphism for the identification of agr autoinducer receptor specificity groups within a population of Staphylococcus aureus isolates colonizing children and their guardians. All isolates could be assigned to one of three major agr groups that had similar prevalences, regardless of whether isolates were implicated in transmission of S. aureus within families. Among healthy carriers, agr groups I to III appear to be equally fit, which may reflect selection for the coexistence of S. aureus strains in a population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shopsin
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mathema
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alcabes
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Said-Salim
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lina
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matsuka
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.forename: B N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Kreiswirth
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: C095698:Agr protein, Staphylococcus aureus; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators