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PMID: 10817707 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

A new class of genetic element, staphylococcus cassette chromosome mec, encodes methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus.

Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy ·Vol. 44 ·No. 6 ·2000-06-00 ·Pages 1549-55

Katayama Y, Ito T, Hiramatsu K

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.

MeSH Terms
Amino Acid Sequence Bacterial Proteins Carrier Proteins/genetics Chromosomes, Bacterial/genetics Hexosyltransferases Methicillin/pharmacology Methicillin Resistance/genetics Molecular Sequence Data Muramoylpentapeptide Carboxypeptidase/genetics Penicillin-Binding Proteins Penicillins/pharmacology Peptidyl Transferases Sequence Alignment Staphylococcus aureus/genetics
Chemicals
Bacterial Proteins Carrier Proteins Penicillin-Binding Proteins Penicillins Peptidyl Transferases Hexosyltransferases Muramoylpentapeptide Carboxypeptidase Methicillin
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Katayama Y
Department of Bacteriology, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan.
Ito T
Hiramatsu K
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Article Info
Journal
Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy
Abbr.
Antimicrob Agents Chemother
ISSN
0066-4804
DOI
10.1128/AAC.44.6.1549-1555.2000
Published
2000-06-00
Pages
1549-55
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
0315061
PMCID
PMC89911
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
D86934
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/AAC.44.6.1549-1555.2000 PMC Full Text View journal details
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