JAC Advance Access published online on November 1, 2002
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, doi:10.1093/jac/dkf238
© 2002 by The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
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Original Paper
1 Gram-positive Bacteria
Typing and Research Unit, Molecular Genetics Research Unit, School
of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box
U1987, Perth, WA 6845
* Corresponding author. E-mail: W.Grubb{at}curtin.edu.au.
Received 22 May 2002
; revised 3 September 2002
; accepted 10 September 2002
The mecA gene that encodes methicillin
resistance in Staphylococcus aureus may be regulated by
the mecR1 and mecI genes, and
this region has been referred to as the mec complex.
An analysis of these regulatory genes in 35 epidemic methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolated in England and Australia
has found that they contain three classes of mec complex.
Firstly, the Class A mec complex with complete mecR1 and mecI genes. Secondly,
a new variant of Class A, the Class A1 mec complex,
with a 166 bp deletion in the membrane-spanning domain of mecR1 and
a complete mecI gene. Thirdly, the Class B mec complex,
in which the penicillin-binding domain of mecR1 and
the whole mecI gene are deleted by the insertion
of a partial sequence of IS1272. Seven MRSA isolated
in England and Australia over different time periods had the Class
A mec complex. However, the isolates did not have
closely related pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns.
The Class A1 mec complex was found in 12 Australian
isolates and the English epidemic MRSA, EMRSA-1. All these organisms
were isolated in the early 1980s and had closely related PFGE patterns.
The Class B mec complex region was found in nine
EMRSA and seven Australian MRSA isolated over the period from the
1970s to 2000. These isolates had related PFGE patterns. The mecA region
was also compared in the isolates and all but two of the isolates had
an XbaI restriction site. These results support
the global spread of epidemic clones and confirm the close relationship
between the Australian and English MRSA strains.
Genetic organization of mecA and mecA-regulatory genes in
epidemic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from
Australia and England
2 Department
of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth,
Western Australia, Australia
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