JAC Advance Access originally published online on January 6, 2003
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Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (2003) 51, 247-255
© 2003 The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
Physiological and molecular analysis of a mecA-negative Staphylococcus aureus clinical strain that expresses heterogeneous methicillin resistance
1 Department of Bacteriology, Juntendo University, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan; 2 Central Public Health Laboratory, London, UK
Received 24 January 2002; returned 22 July 2002; revised 5 September 2002; accepted 14 October 2002
Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolate 61/5896 exhibited methicillin resistance (MIC 64 mg/L), but lacked mecA, which encodes penicillin-binding protein 2'. The strain was isolated in England in 1961, and exhibited unstable heterogeneous methicillin resistance. When cultivated in drug-free medium, the methicillin resistance of 61/5896 increased after three daily passages, then decreased and was completely lost after 12 days passage. Electron microscopy revealed that strain 61/5896 had a thicker and rougher cell wall than its methicillin-susceptible derivatives. It produced about three times more penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP2) than methicillin-susceptible derivatives. The strain was characteristically a non-producer of autolytic enzyme, though the phenotype, which was lost easily, was not directly correlated with methicillin resistance.
Keywords: PBP2, PBP2', mecA, MRSA, autolysis
* Corresponding author. Tel: +81-3-5802-1040; Fax: +81-3-5684-7830; E-mail: hiram{at}juntendo.ac.jp
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