A New Class of Genetic Element, Staphylococcus Cassette Chromosome Mec, Encodes Methicillin Resistance in Staphylococcus Aureus

Overview

Journal Antimicrob Agents Chemother

Publisher American Society for Microbiology

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 2000 May 19

PMID 10817707

Citations 372

Authors

Y Katayama

T Ito

K Hiramatsu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We have previously shown that the methicillin-resistance gene mecA of Staphylococcus aureus strain N315 is localized within a large (52-kb) DNA cassette (designated the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec [SCCmec]) inserted in the chromosome. By sequence determination of the entire DNA, we identified two novel genes (designated cassette chromosome recombinase genes [ccrA and ccrB]) encoding polypeptides having a partial homology to recombinases of the invertase/resolvase family. The open reading frames were found to catalyze precise excision of the SCCmec from the methicillin-resistant S. aureus chromosome and site-specific as well as orientation-specific integration of the SCCmec into the S. aureus chromosome when introduced into the cells as a recombinant multicopy plasmid. We propose that SCCmec driven by a novel set of recombinases represents a new family of staphylococcal genomic elements.

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