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Genetic control of population structure in heterogeneous strains of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus
H de Lencastre1, A M Figueiredo, A Tomasz
1Rockefeller University, Laboratory of Microbiology, New York, New York.
Abstract:
Cultures of heterogeneous strains of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus are composed of several subpopulations of cells that differ in their level of antibiotic resistance and frequencies. Experimental evidence is presented indicating that the number of these subpopulations, their resistance level and the frequency with which they are represented in a culture are strain-specific and reproducible with a surprising degree of precision from one culture to another. This implies a genetic control of population structure in these bacteria.