A. Norrbyteglund et al., DETECTION AND NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE ANALYSIS OF THE SPEC GENE IN SWEDISH CLINICAL GROUP A STREPTOCOCCAL ISOLATES, Journal of clinical microbiology, 32(3), 1994, pp. 705-709
The production of pyrogenic exotoxins SpeA, SpeB, and SpeC by group A
streptococci has been associated with streptococcal toxic shock syndro
me. Several epidemiological studies using DNA hybridization and PCR an
alysis have been performed in attempts to correlate one or several of
the toxins with streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. The results reveal
great variation in the occurrence of the speA and speC genes among cl
inical isolates. In this study we show that the speC gene could be det
ected by nested PCR in five Swedish T1M1 strains isolated from patient
s infected with group A streptococci as well as in three Norwegian T1M
1 isolates, previously reported to lack speC as determined by dot blot
hybridization. To verify the identities of the amplified products, th
e nucleotide sequences of the PCR fragments from one Swedish T1M1 stra
in and from the toxin reference strain NY5 were determined. The nucleo
tide sequences showed that the amplified products were speC and of all
ele type C2, on the basis of the nucleotides in positions 438 and 456.
However, one additional base pair substitution was found in NY5 at po
sition 147 and in the Swedish isolate at position 157 which resulted i
n nonsynonymous amino acid changes. Thus, these speC genes represent t
wo new allelic variants.