Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 5, 2026

Genotyping of Staphylococcus aureus by Ribosomal Spacer PCR (RS-PCR)
Published on: November 4, 2016
Enterotoxin production and DNA fingerprinting in Staphylococcus aureus isolated from human and food samples.
J M Fueyo1, M C Martín, M A González-Hevia
1Area de Microbiología, Departamento de Biología Funcional, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain.
Abstract:
A total of 224 Staphylococcus aureus strains from human carriers (110 strains) and manually handled foods (114 strains) collected in the Principality of Asturias, Spain over 1995-1999 were analysed for the production of enterotoxins (SEs) A, B, C, and D by a reversed passive latex agglutination test and by amplification of ent genes (A, B, C, D, E, and J) using PCR. Sixty-two strains were enterotoxigenic and a good relation between detection of SEs and their ent genes was found. No strain carried entE and all strains producing SED carried entD and entJ genes. Among the enterotoxigenic strains the percentages registered were 29, 8, 35, 18, 2, 2, and 6 for SEA, SEB, SEC, SEDJ, SEAC, SEADJ and SECDJ, respectively. DNA fingerprinting of 77 strains (the SE prototypes, 62 enterotoxigenic and 10 non-enterotoxigenic [NE]) was carried out by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA using two selected primers independently. Combining results from both primers, 10 genetic types were defined, which showed a different degree of relationship (similarity coefficient: 0.9-0.36) and were clustered into three lineages. One lineage clustered five genetic types and a wide diversity of strains, mainly SEA, SEB, SEDJ, and NE. Another lineage clustered only SEC, SECDJ and NE strains. These two lineages showed a low genetic relationship and appeared as endemic in healthy humans living in the Principality of Asturias. The third lineage included only the prototype strains for SEA and SEE.
Related Concept Videos
Bacterial Gastroenteritis
Bacterial Toxins
Modern Molecular Taxonomy
Clinical Significance of Antibiotic Resistance
Applications of Molecular Taxonomy
Mechanism of Antibiotic Resistance in MRSA

