Ribotype Delineation and Description of Staphylococcus sciuri Subspecies and Their Potential as Reservoirs of Methicillin Resistance and Staphylolytic Enzyme Genes

Abstract

Three subspecies of Staphylococcus sciuri, S. sciuri subsp. sciuri Moos, Schleifer, and Smith 1976, 23& emend. Moos et al. 1996, S. sciuri subsp. curnaticus subsp. nov., and S. sciuri subsp. rodentium subsp. nov., are described on the basis of their ribotype patterns, DNA-DNA liquid hybridization data, and phenotypic characteristics. Normalized ribotyping subdivided the S. sciuri patterns into three blocks of patterns, each corresponding to a subspecies. Each subspecies formed a separate, well-defined DNA similarity group when DNA-DNA hybridizations were conducted under stringent (7OOC) reassociation conditions. S. sciuri subsp. sciuri could be distinguished from the other subspecies on the basis of its ability to produce acid from D-cellobiose, alkaline phosphatase activity, and inability to produce either clumping factor or protein A. S. sciuri subsp. curnaticus could be distinguished by its ability to produce acid aerobically from D-xylose and maltose, inability to produce acid from D-melezitose, and smaller colony size on P agar. S. sciuri subsp. rodentium could be distinguished by its positive reaction in the latex agglutination test for clumping factor and/or protein A and generally higher frequencies and levels of oxacillin and methicillin resistance. All 40 strains of S. sciuri tested (including representatives of all three subspecies) hybridized with the mecA gene probe. All strains of S. sciuri subsp. sciuri, 79% of the strains of S. sciuri subsp. carnuticus and 89% of the strains of S. sciuri subsp. rodentium exhibited extracellular, staphylolytic enzyme activity. This activity was associated with an enzyme(s) that immunoblotted with a lysostaphin-specific monoclonal antibody; however, only three strains hybridized with a lysostaphin (end) gene probe. The type strain of S. sciuri subsp. curnaticus is DD 791 (= ATCC 700058), and the type strain of S. sciuri subsp. rodentium is DD 4761 (= ATCC 700061).Staphylococcus sciuri is generally considered one of the most primitive Staphylococcus species; it is widely distributed in nature, is capable of growth on inorganic nitrogen salts as the sole source of nitrogen, and exhibits a wide range of biochemical activities (31-33). In the past 20 years since its original description (33), numerous laboratories have reported frequent isolation of this species from foods, farm animals, rodents, marsupials, marine mammals, and birds and occasional isolation from humans and their pets (1,2, 17,28,31,35,48,52,57,58).Most resident populations of S. sciuri are members of the normal cutaneous microflora of lower mammals. This species is rarely associated with infections. A preliminary investigation of a large collection of S. sciuri strains showed that a ribotyping method based on an analysis of genomic EcoRI fragments containing portions of the rRNA operons could be used to distinguish two major subgroups and additional strain variation within the species (10).In this study, we describe three subpopulations of S. sciuri which can be distinguished on the basis of their rib...

Recommended minimal standards for description of new staphylococcal species

“…This activity is at least in part due to the production of a staphylolytic enzyme that is immunologically related to lysostaphin but often encoded by a different gene. A quantitative analysis of staphylolytic enzyme production in culture supernatants may be performed using the method used by Kloos et al (1997) in their description of Staphylococcus sciuri subspecies. Most of the tests described above and some others, i.e.…”

Staphylococcus hominis subsp. novobiosepticus subsp. nov., a novel trehalose- and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine-negative, novobiocin- and multiple-antibiotic-resistant subspecies isolated from human blood cultures

“…These same biochemical characteristics and additional biochemical profile data were also obtained with the Microscan Dried Overnight (Conventional) GramPositive ID and Microscan Rapid Gram-Positive ID panel systems (Dade Microscan) Weinstein et al, 1995). Colony size, pigmentation, lustre, profile and consistency were determined on freshly prepared P agar , tryptic soy agar (TSA; Difco), and TSA plus 5 % sheep blood plates, following pointinoculation, incubation for 72 h at 35 "C, and storage at room temperature for an additional 2 d (Kloos & Schleifer, 1975a;Kloos & Bannerman, 1995 W. E. Kloos and others polysaccharide/adhesin were determined by methods previously described (Muller et al, 1993;Huebner et al, 1994 thymidine-labelled total DNAs were isolated and purified using a modification of the procedures of Brenner et al (1969) for use with staphylococcal species that are somewhat difficult to lyse (Kloos & Wolfshohl, 1979;Kloos et al, 1997). DNA-DNA reassociation reactions were performed at stringent (70 "C) and optimal (55 "C) conditions (Kloos & Wolfshohl, 1979;Kloos, 1980Kloos, , 1998.…”

Comparative ribotyping of Staphylococcus intermedius isolated from members of the Canoidea gives possible evidence for host-specificity and co-evolution of bacteria and hosts.

“…jek, 1976 ;Kloos, 1980 ;Hesselbarth & Schwartz, 1995 ;Chesneau et al, 2000). Detection of restriction fragments containing the rRNA genes has been proposed as a general method for distinguishing bacterial species and has been used successfully to identify species and subspecies within the genus Staphylococcus (Grimont & Grimont, 1986 ;De Buyser et al, 1992 ;Thomson-Carter et al, 1989 ;Webster et al, 1994 ;Kloos et al, 1997).…”