title: Staphylococcus aureus plasmids without mobilization genes are mobilized by a novel conjugative plasmid from community isolates.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe a family of conjugative plasmids isolated from colonizing community Staphylococcus aureus and determine their ability to mobilize unrelated antimicrobial resistance/virulence plasmids, not encoding mobilization functions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Plasmid pWBG749 was labelled with Tn551 (pWBG749e) to enable laboratory manipulation. Plasmid pWBG749e was conjugated into S. aureus of seven different lineages that harboured unrelated plasmids and mobilization experiments were performed. Plasmids were screened by EcoRI restriction and hybridization with probes prepared from unique pWBG749 conjugation genes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Conjugative plasmids pWBG745, pWBG748 and pWBG749 belong to the same conjugative-plasmid family as the vancomycin resistance plasmid pBRZ01. Plasmid pWBG749e mobilized five unrelated plasmids. Mobilized plasmid pWBG744 is a pIB485-family plasmid that was also found in international S. aureus.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Plasmid pWBG749e can mobilize unrelated S. aureus plasmids whose means of dissemination have not previously been understood.
authors.affiliation: Australian Collaborating Centre for Enterococcus and Staphylococcus Species (ACCESS) Typing and Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia f.g.obrien@curtin.edu.au.
authors.forename: F G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.affiliation: Australian Collaborating Centre for Enterococcus and Staphylococcus Species (ACCESS) Typing and Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia School of Biomedical Sciences, CHIRI Biosciences Research Precinct, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Ramsay
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Medizinische Fakultät 'Carl Gustav Carus', Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany Alere Technologies GmbH, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Monecke
authors.affiliation: Australian Collaborating Centre for Enterococcus and Staphylococcus Species (ACCESS) Typing and Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: G W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Coombs
authors.affiliation: Australian Collaborating Centre for Enterococcus and Staphylococcus Species (ACCESS) Typing and Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: O J
authors.initials: OJ
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Htet
authors.affiliation: Australian Collaborating Centre for Enterococcus and Staphylococcus Species (ACCESS) Typing and Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: F A M
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Alshaikh
authors.affiliation: Australian Collaborating Centre for Enterococcus and Staphylococcus Species (ACCESS) Typing and Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Grubb
mesh_terms: D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D023061:Gene Order; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010957:Plasmids; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial
keywords: S. aureus; antibiotic resistance; conjugative plasmids