Objective To understand
fosfomycin resistance and
prevalence of
fos gene in clinical
Staphylococcus aureus strains .
Methods A total of 109 clinical
strains of S .aureus were isolated from the
patients in Huashan
Hospital from January to March in 2014 .Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by
agar dilution method .The
genes related to
fosfomycin resistance including fosA ,fosB and fosC were detected by
PCR .The flanking sequences of
fos gene were determined by primer
walking sequencing .The
multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was carried out for
fos gene positive
strains .Results Forty‐four
strains were resistant to
fosfomycin (MIC> 32 mg/L) ,including 13 positive for fosB
gene .Thirteen of the 109 (11 .9% )
strains carried fosB
gene .However ,no fosA or fosC
gene was identified .ST1 was a dominant MLST type in the
strains carrying fosB
gene .The three
strains positive for fosB
gene and associated with high level
fosfomycin resistance (MIC> 512 mg/L) belonged to three different ST types .
Walking sequencing showed that the fosB
gene located on a transferable
element containing a
transposase gene .Conclusions High
prevalence of f osB
gene in
fosfomycin‐resistant S . aureus
strains indicates that f osB
gene may mediate or contribute to
fosfomycin resistance .