| Title | Comparative Analysis of Superantigen Genes in Staphylococcus xylosus and Staphylococcus aureus Isolates Collected from a Single Mammary Quarter of Cows with Mastitis |
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| Author | Karol Fijałkowski 1*, Magdalena Struk 1, Jolanta Karakulska 1, Aleksandra Paszkowska 2, Stefania Giedrys-Kalemba 2, Helena Masiuk 2, Danuta Czernomysy-Furowicz 1, and Paweł Nawrotek 1 |
| Address | 1Department of Immunology, Microbiology and Physiological Chemistry, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland, 2Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland |
| Bibliography | Journal of Microbiology, 52(5),366-372, 2014, |
| DOI | DOI 10.1007/s12275-014-3436-2 |
| Key Words | superantigen genes, enterotoxins, S. xylosus, S. aureus, mastitis |
| Abstract | The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare genes encoding superantigens (SAgs) in Staphylococcus xylosus and Staphylococcus aureus isolates collected simultaneously from milk of the same cows with clinical mastitis. Genes encoding staphylococcal enterotoxins and enterotoxin-like proteins (sea-selu), toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (tst-1) and exfolia-tive toxins (eta and etd) were investigated. It was found that among 30 isolates of S. xylosus, 16 (53.3%) harbored from 1 to 10 SAg genes. In total, in 16 SAg positive S. xylosus, 11 different enterotoxin genes were detected: sec, sed, seg, seh, sei, selm, seln, selo, selp, ser, selu and one etd gene encoding exfoliative toxin D. The most prevalent genes were ser, selu, and selo. Among all the positive isolates of S. xylosus, a total of 14 different SAg gene combinations were detected. One combination was repeated in 3 isolates, whereas the rest were detected only once. However, in the case of S. aureus all the 30 isolates harbored the same combination of SAg genes: seg, sei, selm, seln, selo and on the basis of PFGE analysis all belonged to the same clonal type. Also noteworthy was the observation that SAg genes detected in S. aureus have also been found in S. xylosus. The findings of this study further extend previous observations that SAg genes are present not only in S. aureus but also in coagulase-negative staphy-lococci, including S. xylosus. Therefore, taking into account that the SAg genes are encoded on mobile genetic elements it is possible that these genes can be transferred between different species of coexisting staphylococci. |