African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (20), pp. 1858-1863, 16 October 2006   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Repeats in the 3' region of the protein A gene is unique in a strain of Staphylococcus aureus recovered from wound infections in Lagos, Nigeria

Solayide A. Adesida*, Yekaterina Likhoshvay, William Eisner, Akitoye Olusegun Coker, Olusegun A. Abioye, Folasade T. Ogunsola, Barry N. kreiswirth

Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Division, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, 6, Edmond Crescent, off Murtala Mohammed way, PMB 2013, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.

*Corresponding authors E-mail: slyesida@yahoo.com. Tel: 234-8060907748.

Accepted 19 July, 2006

Bacterial strain typing has quite a lot of important applications in microbiology. In medical practice, strain typing is useful for diagnosis and determining strategies for treatment of infections. More essentially, it is considered for rapid identification of disease outbreaks and new virulent strains. In this study, Protein A gene (spa) short sequence repeats region sequencing was used to measure relatedness among a collection Staphylococcus aureus were recovered from patients presenting with different degree of wound infections at three major hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria. The strains were also compared with representative sputum and blood isolates. From the pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) fingerprinting generated, the seventeen S. aureus isolates was defined as belonging to diverse genotypes with isolates recovered from different individuals generally having distinctive profile. spa typing distinguished five major "clones" within the three hospitals and classified representatives of the wound and sputum isolates as members of the same clone (spa 7). S. aureus isolates from three hospitals are closely related and found within the spa 454 clone. A combination of codon giving a unique cassette was however identified in the whole set and was postulated that this might be restricted to the indigenous strains.

Key words: Spa typing, Staphylococcus aureus, wound isolates, Protein A gene.