Aims: To evaluate the occurrence of enterotoxin genes in Staphylococcus aureus recovered from nasal carriers.
Methods and results: Eighty S. aureus strains were tested for the presence of 17 new enterotoxin genes using multiplex-PCR. Sixty-one isolates were found to carry enterotoxin genes. The majority of the enterotoxigenic isolates carried enterotoxin gene cluster (egc) genes, namely seg, sei, sem, sen and seo. The egc type containing the seu gene was found in 19 of the 47 isolates with egc-like genes. Interestingly, no seu-containing egc coexisted with sec and sel, as was the case for a considerable portion of the isolates carrying a seu-negative egc. The tst gene was detected in two isolates carrying sec and sel only and in eight isolates carrying seu, but not in the isolates containing the seu-negative egc type.
Conclusions: The genes forming an egc were found to be predominant in S. aureus from nasal carriers. The coexistence of a seu-positive egc with tst in contrast to an egc lacking the seu gene apparently is not associated with the presence of tst and can reflect a difference between these gene groupings.
Significance and impact of the study: The egc types carried by the analysed isolates seem to have an influence on the distribution of other genes located on staphylococcal pathogenicity islands, which may modulate the repertoire of virulence factors carried by a single S. aureus strain.