MRSA’s genetics affect how toxic it will be

The spread of the antibiotic-resistant pathogen MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) remains a concerning public health problem, especially among doctors trying to determine appropriate treatment options for infected patients. Bacterial pathogens, such as MRSA, cause disease in part due to toxicity, or the bacterium’s ability to damage a host’s tissue.

In a study published online in Genome Research, researchers used the genome sequence of MRSA to predict which isolates were highly toxic, thus potentially personalizing the treatment of individual MRSA infections.

To study MRSA’s toxicity, “the standard approach has always been to focus on a single or small number of genes and proteins,” said lead author Ruth Massey, from the University of Bath. However, this has not always been successful because toxicity is a complex trait encoded by many genetic loci.

In this new study, the authors used whole genome sequences from 90 MRSA isolates to identify over 100 genetic loci associated with toxicity. Despite belonging to the same ST239 clone, the isolates varied greatly in toxicity.

Read the full, original story: MRSA Genome Predicts Toxicity

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