title: spa Typing and Multilocus Sequence Typing Show Comparable Performance in a Macroepidemiologic Study of Staphylococcus aureus in the United States.
abstract: A number of molecular typing methods have been developed for characterization of Staphylococcus aureus isolates. The utility of these systems depends on the nature of the investigation for which they are used. We compared two commonly used methods of molecular typing, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) (and its clustering algorithm, Based Upon Related Sequence Type [BURST]) with the staphylococcal protein A (spa) typing (and its clustering algorithm, Based Upon Repeat Pattern [BURP]), to assess the utility of these methods for macroepidemiology and evolutionary studies of S. aureus in the United States. We typed a total of 366 clinical isolates of S. aureus by these methods and evaluated indices of diversity and concordance values. Our results show that, when combined with the BURP clustering algorithm to delineate clonal lineages, spa typing produces results that are highly comparable with those produced by MLST/BURST. Therefore, spa typing is appropriate for use in macroepidemiology and evolutionary studies and, given its lower implementation cost, this method appears to be more efficient. The findings are robust and are consistent across different settings, patient ages, and specimen sources. Our results also support a model in which the methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) population in the United States comprises two major lineages (USA300 and USA100), which each consist of closely related variants.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Computational Biology, GlaxoSmithKline , Collegeville, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: F Patrick
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: O'Hara
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Health Outcomes, GSK Vaccines , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Jose A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Suaya
authors.affiliation: 3 Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program , Northern California Region, Oakland, California.
authors.forename: G Thomas
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.affiliation: 4 Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center , Oakland, California.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baxter
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Computational Biology, GlaxoSmithKline , Collegeville, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Megan L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: 5 Department of Statistics, GlaxoSmithKline , Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Robertino M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Mera
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Computational Biology, GlaxoSmithKline , Collegeville, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Nicole M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Close
authors.affiliation: 6 Research and Development , GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: 7 Alternative Discovery and Development, GlaxoSmithKline , Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Amrine-Madsen
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques / Q000379:methods; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000379:methods; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology / Q000379:methods; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing / Q000379:methods; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D013205:Staphylococcal Protein A / Q000235:genetics; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D013205:Staphylococcal Protein A