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Updated: May 29, 2026

Multiplex PCR Assay for Typing of Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome Mec Types I to V in Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Published on: September 5, 2013
Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (Sccmec) classification and typing methods: an overview
Agata Turlej1, Waleria Hryniewicz, Joanna Empel
1Department of Epidemiology and Clinical Microbiology, Warsaw, Poland. aturlej@dcs.edu.pl
Abstract:
Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the main causes of hospital-acquired infections, but since late 1990s also the community-acquired. For better understanding of the S.aureus epidemiology there is an urgent need for creation of new typing method for SCCmec element. The molecular typing of MRSA for epidemiological purposes is investigated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST), spa typing and the SCCmec type assignment. In last few years not only new type of SCCmec (VI to XI) have been identified, but also additional subtypes (i.e. IVg-j) and different variants of already existed one (i.e. 5C2&5 and 2B2&5) were discovered. The aim of this review is to briefly summarize current knowledge about SCCmec classification and to discuss advantages and disadvantages of selected SCCmec typing methods.
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