title: [Molecular types of group A Streptococcus isolated from scarlet fever patients and asymptomatic carriers in Shandong province, 2013].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the molecular characteristics of group A Streptococcus (GAS) isolated from patients and asymptomatic carriers of scarlet fever in Shandong province, 2013, and to explore the relationships between emm types and other molecular types.
  
  
  METHODS
  72 strains of GAS were isolated from throat swabs of children with scarlet fever or asymptomatic carriers of GAS. All the strains were typed by emm typing, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), super-antigen (SAg) genes detections and pulsed-field gel electrophoreses (PFGE).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 72 strains, emm1 (41.67%) and emm12 (56.94%) were the most common emm types. Two ST types were found, including ST28 (43.06%) and ST36 (56.94%). Additionally, emm1 was also found correlated to ST28, while emm12 was associated with ST36. Eight super-antigen genes were detected, including smeZ (100.00%), ssa (100.00%), speG (97.22%), speC (95.83%), speL (54.17%), speJ (41.67%), speA (38.89%) and speH (38.89%), while speK, speM, speL were not found (0%). Both speA and speJ genes were detected primarily in emm1 strains (all P < 0.05), while speH and speI genes were not detected in emm 1 strains (all P < 0.05). And emm12 strains were inclined to harbor speH and speL (all P < 0.05) but not speA or speJ (all P < 0.05). Twenty different genotypes were identified by PFGE.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  All the emm types of GAS isolated from scarlet fever patients and asymptomatic carriers in Shandong province 2013 were mainly emm1 and emm12 and carrying speC, speG and smeZ, ssa. ST types mainly exsited in ST28 and ST36. In addition, there were correlations between emm types and super-antigen genes, ST types, PFGE types.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China.
authors.forename: Zhenyan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Shandong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Shandong University.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Shandong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Shandong University.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Shandong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Shandong University.
authors.forename: Zhenwang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.affiliation: Shandong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Shandong University.
authors.forename: Zengqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kou
authors.affiliation: Shandong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Shandong University.
authors.forename: Yanyan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Shandong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Shandong University.
authors.forename: Baoli
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China; Shandong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Shandong University. Email: bzq63@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhenqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bi
mesh_terms: D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D002648:Child; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D005098:Exotoxins; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D012541:Scarlet Fever / Q000382:microbiology*; D013297:Streptococcus pyogenes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D005098:Exotoxins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C117980:SpeA protein, Streptococcus pyogenes