ABSTRACT
We evaluated the BURP (based upon repeat patterns) algorithm, which relies on sequencing of the Staphylococcus aureus protein A gene (spa), for its ability to infer clonal relatedness within a population of 110 wild-type strains. BURP clustering of the resulting 66 spa types was highly concordant with multilocus sequence typing (96.5% concordance) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (94.9%).
Subject(s)
Bacterial Typing Techniques/methods , DNA, Bacterial/genetics , Staphylococcal Protein A/genetics , Staphylococcus aureus/classification , Staphylococcus aureus/genetics , Cluster Analysis , DNA, Bacterial/chemistry , Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field , Genotype , Humans , Sequence Analysis, DNA/methodsABSTRACT
The emerging clinical importance of staphylococcal infections prompted us to establish a reference database for partial RNA polymerase B (rpoB; nucleotides 1444-1928) gene sequences from type strains of all staphylococcal species and subspecies. This database correctly identified 55 clinical staphylococcal isolates; all were correctly identified at the species level. At the subspecies level, rpoB misidentified only 2 isolates.
