TYPING OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS BY PCR FOR DNA-SEQUENCES FLANKED BY TRANSPOSON TN916 TARGET REGION AND RIBOSOMAL-BINDING SITE

The continuous intra- and interhospital spread of multiresistant Staph ylococcus aureus demands a rapid molecular typing system. This study d escribes the fingerprinting of S. aureus by PCR amplification of DNA s equences flanked by the target site for transposon Tn916 and the ribos omal binding site and neighboring nucleotides (target 916-Shine-Dalgar no PCR [tar 916-shida PCR]). Both starting points for PCR are known to be randomly distributed on the S. aureus chromosome. By use of SmaI-m acrorestriction patterns as the reference method it was shown that thi s PCR genotyping discriminates among strains of the major clonal group s of the species S. aureus (strains with phage patterns 29,+, 94,96, a nd 95 as well as group II and group III patterns) and identifies the s ix epidemic methicillin-resistant S. aureus strains prevalent in Germa n hospitals, All of the investigated strains including methicillin-sen sitive S. aureus were typeable, Tar 916-shida patterns are stable duri ng the dissemination of epidemic methicillin-resistant S. aureus among different hospitals.