title: Genomic fingerprinting of bacteriocin-producer strains of Staphylococcus aureus.
abstract: Among 363 strains of Staphylococcus aureus, 21 were shown to produce bacteriocins (Bac), antimicrobial peptides with potential biotechnological applications. This collection includes strains which are either isolated from food, patients and healthy cattle, or are involved in subclinical bovine mastitis. From these 21 strains, 17 were shown to carry closely-related 8.0-kb Bac plasmids encoding bacteriocins either identical to or similar to aureocin A70, a bacteriocin able to inhibit strains of Listeria monocytogenes, a food-borne pathogen. Such findings prompted us to investigate the genetic relationships among these Bac+ strains. To obtain more discriminatory results, a combined analysis of AP-PCR, rep-PCR, and a modified PCR technique that we designated SD-PCR was employed. The 17 Bac+ strains harboring 8.0-kb Bac plasmids exhibited seven fingerprint patterns. One such genotype was composed of 8 out of the 11 strains associated with bovine mastitis, which suggests the prevalence of a clone of Bac+ strains involved in this animal infection carrying 8.0-kb Bac plasmids. Our data support the assumption that Bac+ strains of S. aureus carrying genetically related 8.0-kb Bac plasmids do not belong to a single clone. It seems, therefore, that 8.0-kb Bac plasmids have spread horizontally among different S. aureus strains. There also seems to be genetic diversity among the remaining Bac+ strains analyzed.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Microbiologia Geral, Instituto de Microbiologia Prof. Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Janaína dos S
authors.initials: Jdos S
authors.lastname: Nascimento
authors.forename: Marcia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giambiagi-deMarval
authors.forename: Selma S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Hilana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ceotto
authors.forename: Kátia Regina N
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: dos Santos
authors.forename: Maria do Carmo de F
authors.initials: Mdo C
authors.lastname: Bastos
mesh_terms: D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005784:Gene Amplification; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D010802:Phylogeny; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001430:Bacteriocins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial