Comparison of the DiversiLab system, Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis and Multi-Locus Sequence Typing for the characterization of epidemic reference MRSA strains.

We have analyzed a representative selection of the HARMONY meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain collection originating from 11 European countries (Cookson, B.D. et al., 2007, J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 1830-1837) with the DiversiLab System, Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) and Multi-Locus Sequence Typing (MLST). Simpson's diversity indices were 0.905, 0.877 and 0.860 for PFGE, MLST and DiversiLab, respectively. All methods displayed concordant classification of the MRSA strains, although with divergent resolution and reproducibility.