Assignment of Staphylococcus isolates to groups by spa typing, SmaI macrorestriction analysis, and multilocus...

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Epidemiology
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Staphylococcus aureus is a significant pathogen causing various infections.
• Accurate epidemiological typing is crucial for tracking outbreaks and understanding transmission.
• Established methods like SmaI macrorestriction analysis and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) have limitations in ease of use or data exchange.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of a new clustering algorithm, Based Upon Repeat Pattern (BURP), when applied to spa typing data for Staphylococcus aureus.
• To compare the performance of spa typing/BURP with established methods: SmaI macrorestriction analysis and MLST/eBURST.
• To assess the utility of spa typing/BURP as a tool for Staphylococcus aureus epidemiology.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of the BURP clustering algorithm within the Ridom StaphType software.
• Comparison of clustering results from spa typing/BURP against SmaI macrorestriction analysis and MLST/eBURST.
• Analysis of 99 clinical Staphylococcus aureus isolates, including MRSA, from Germany and Central Europe, representing key clonal lineages.

Main Results:

• SmaI macrorestriction analysis demonstrated the highest discriminatory power among the methods tested.
• High concordance was observed between the three methods, with values ranging from 93.4% to 96.8%.
• Spa typing combined with BURP clustering showed strong agreement with both SmaI macrorestriction analysis and MLST/eBURST.

Conclusions:

• Spa typing coupled with BURP clustering is a valuable and practical tool for Staphylococcus aureus epidemiological surveillance.
• The method offers advantages in ease of use, unambiguous sequence analysis, reproducibility, and data exchange.
• This approach aids in understanding the epidemiology of prevalent Staphylococcus aureus infections in regions like Germany and Central Europe.