Gene polymorphism analysis in the epidemiological typing of hospital acquired methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus isolates

ABSTRACT

Background and objectives: typing of Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] is of great importance for detection of the relatedness of isolate. Both phenotypic and genotypic markers can be employed to type MRSA strains. The spa gene encoding protein A and the CoA gene encoding coagulase enzyme contain highly polymorphic repeat units. These repeats allowed for differentiation between MRSA isolates that are heterogeneous in respect to these regions using polymerase chain reaction - restriction fragment length polymorphism [PCR - RFLP] assay. This study aimed to address the competence of various typing methods [antibi typing, coa gene typing and spa gene typing] in discriminating MRSA isolates and to assess the concordance between the used typing methods: