Classification of Clinically Relevant Microorganisms in Non-Medical Environments
Abstract
The genus staphylococcus was given its name by Sir Alex Ogston, a Scottish surgeon, in 1881 when he observed grape-like clusters of bacteria associated with clinical infections. Three years later, the German physician Anton Rosenbach isolated and grew these microorganisms in a pure culture. He named them Staphylococcus aureus because of their golden color. S. aureus remains one of the most important pathogens in clinical settings largely due to the rapidity of its evolutionary response to treatment. The first antibiotic-resistant strains of S. aureus were isolated only several years after penicillin was introduced commercially, and the subsequent history of antibiotics has been driven by the evolving emergence of antibiotic resistance. Our ability to control the rate at which resistance develops and spreads is predicated on our understanding of the evolutionary biology of pathogens and the basic features of bacterial populations, and while hospital acquired strains of S. aureus have received a great deal of attention, the distribution and virulence (ability to cause infection) of community-associated strains of S. aureus are not well-defined and few studies have assigned isolates of the bacteria to known strains. The objectives of this study were to collect, isolate and characterize samples of S. aureus from areas utilized by midshipman athletes at the United States Naval Academy and patients at the Naval Medical Clinic, Annapolis. These samp les were classified in several steps including their gross morphology and determinative biochemical activities. Finally, a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme was used to unambiguously characterize the isolates and analyze significant evolutionary trends in the population. The sequences of internal fragments of seven genes were obtained for 36 S. aureus isolates and assigned a unique allelic profile.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 06, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA424847
Entities
People
- Daniel Bowers
Organizations
- United States Naval Academy