Biomaterial Database

Deciphering pathogenicity and antibiotic resistance islands in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus genomes. 2017

Mehul Jani, and Soham Sengupta, and Kelsey Hu, and Rajeev K Azad

Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA.

Staphylococcus aureus is a versatile pathogen that is capable of causing infections in both humans and animals. It can cause furuncles, septicaemia, pneumonia and endocarditis. Adaptation of S. aureus to the modern hospital environment has been facilitated, in part, by the horizontal acquisition of drug resistance genes, such as mecA gene that imparts resistance to methicillin. Horizontal acquisitions of islands of genes harbouring virulence and antibiotic resistance genes have made S. aureus resistant to commonly used antibiotics. To decipher genomic islands (GIs) in 22 hospital- and 9 community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus strains and classify a subset of GIs carrying virulence and resistance genes as pathogenicity and resistance islands respectively, we applied a host of methods for localizing genomic islands in prokaryotic genomes. Surprisingly, none of the frequently used GI prediction methods could perform well in delineating the resistance islands in the S. aureus genomes. Rather, a gene clustering procedure exploiting biases in codon usage for identifying horizontally transferred genes outperformed the current methods for GI detection, in particular in identifying the known islands in S. aureus including the SCCmec island that harbours the mecA resistance gene. The gene clustering approach also identified novel, as yet unreported islands, with many of these found to harbour virulence and/or resistance genes. These as yet unexplored islands may provide valuable information on the evolution of drug resistance in S. aureus.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D001426	Bacterial Proteins	Proteins found in any species of bacterium.	Bacterial Gene Products,Bacterial Gene Proteins,Gene Products, Bacterial,Bacterial Gene Product,Bacterial Gene Protein,Bacterial Protein,Gene Product, Bacterial,Gene Protein, Bacterial,Gene Proteins, Bacterial,Protein, Bacterial,Proteins, Bacterial
D014774	Virulence	The degree of pathogenicity within a group or species of microorganisms or viruses as indicated by case fatality rates and/or the ability of the organism to invade the tissues of the host. The pathogenic capacity of an organism is determined by its VIRULENCE FACTORS.	Pathogenicity
D016680	Genome, Bacterial	The genetic complement of a BACTERIA as represented in its DNA.	Bacterial Genome,Bacterial Genomes,Genomes, Bacterial
D046915	Penicillin-Binding Proteins	Bacterial proteins that share the property of binding irreversibly to PENICILLINS and other ANTIBACTERIAL AGENTS derived from LACTAMS. The penicillin-binding proteins are primarily enzymes involved in CELL WALL biosynthesis including MURAMOYLPENTAPEPTIDE CARBOXYPEPTIDASE; PEPTIDE SYNTHASES; TRANSPEPTIDASES; and HEXOSYLTRANSFERASES.	Penicillin-Binding Protein,Penicillin-Binding Protein 1,Penicillin-Binding Protein 1A,Penicillin-Binding Protein 1b,Penicillin-Binding Protein 2,Penicillin-Binding Protein 2a,Penicillin-Binding Protein 2b,Penicillin-Binding Protein 3,Penicillin-Binding Protein 4,Penicillin-Binding Protein 5,Penicillin-Binding Protein 6,Penicillin-Binding Protein 7,Penicillin-Binding Protein-2a,Peptidoglycan Synthetase,Penicillin Binding Protein,Penicillin Binding Protein 1,Penicillin Binding Protein 1A,Penicillin Binding Protein 1b,Penicillin Binding Protein 2,Penicillin Binding Protein 2a,Penicillin Binding Protein 2b,Penicillin Binding Protein 3,Penicillin Binding Protein 4,Penicillin Binding Protein 5,Penicillin Binding Protein 6,Penicillin Binding Protein 7,Penicillin Binding Proteins,Protein 1A, Penicillin-Binding,Protein 1b, Penicillin-Binding,Proteins, Penicillin-Binding,Synthetase, Peptidoglycan
D055624	Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus	A strain of Staphylococcus aureus that is non-susceptible to the action of METHICILLIN. The mechanism of resistance usually involves modification of normal or the presence of acquired PENICILLIN BINDING PROTEINS.	MRSA,Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
D022761	Gene Transfer, Horizontal	The naturally occurring transmission of genetic information between organisms, related or unrelated, circumventing parent-to-offspring transmission. Horizontal gene transfer may occur via a variety of naturally occurring processes such as GENETIC CONJUGATION; GENETIC TRANSDUCTION; and TRANSFECTION. It may result in a change of the recipient organism's genetic composition (TRANSFORMATION, GENETIC).	Gene Transfer, Lateral,Horizontal Gene Transfer,Lateral Gene Transfer,Recombination, Interspecies,Recombination, Interspecific,Gene Transfers, Lateral,Interspecies Recombination,Interspecific Recombination,Lateral Gene Transfers
D024881	Drug Resistance, Bacterial	The ability of bacteria to resist or to become tolerant to chemotherapeutic agents, antimicrobial agents, or antibiotics. This resistance may be acquired through gene mutation or foreign DNA in transmissible plasmids (R FACTORS).	Antibiotic Resistance, Bacterial,Antibacterial Drug Resistance