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Journal of Bacteriology, June 2009, p. 3462-3468, Vol. 191, No. 11
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01804-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Diversity of Prophages in Dominant Staphylococcus aureus Clonal Lineages{triangledown}

Christiane Goerke,1* Roman Pantucek,2 Silva Holtfreter,3 Berit Schulte,1 Manuel Zink,1 Dorothee Grumann,3 Barbara M. Bröker,3 Jiri Doskar,2 and Christiane Wolz1

Institut für Med. Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany,1 Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic,2 Institut für Immunologie und Transfusionsmedizin, Universität Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany3

Received 23 December 2008/ Accepted 23 March 2009

Temperate bacteriophages play an important role in the pathogenicity of Staphylococcus aureus, for instance, by mediating the horizontal gene transfer of virulence factors. Here we established a classification scheme for staphylococcal prophages of the major Siphoviridae family based on integrase gene polymorphism. Seventy-one published genome sequences of staphylococcal phages were clustered into distinct integrase groups which were related to the chromosomal integration site and to the encoded virulence gene content. Analysis of three marker modules (lysogeny, tail, and lysis) for phage functional units revealed that these phages exhibit different degrees of genome mosaicism. The prevalence of prophages in a representative S. aureus strain collection consisting of 386 isolates of diverse origin was determined. By linking the phage content to dominant S. aureus clonal complexes we could show that the distribution of bacteriophages varied remarkably between lineages, indicating restriction-based barriers. A comparison of colonizing and invasive S. aureus strain populations revealed that hlb-converting phages were significantly more frequent in colonizing strains.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut für Med. Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen, Elfriede-Aulhorn-Str. 6, 72076 Tübingen, Germany. Phone: 49-7071-2985229. Fax: 49-7071-295165. E-mail: christiane.goerke{at}med.uni-tuebingen.de

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 27 March 2009.

Journal of Bacteriology, June 2009, p. 3462-3468, Vol. 191, No. 11
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01804-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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