Abstract
Healthcare-associated, vancomycin-resistant Enterococci and Staphylococcus aureus have become increasingly concerning to public health. Previous research onvanA-type vancomycin resistance has focused on characterizing isolates and identifying evolutionarily conserved motifs within the vanA gene to discover potential drug targets. This study is the first in the literature to compare the vanA gene across Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus faecalis, and Staphylococcus aureus. We analyze data from two patients, collected seven years apart, each experiencing distinct healthcare conditions. The first is a urinary tract infection patient in long-term care in 2004. The second is a liver transplant patient who developed a vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) infection post-transplant in 2011. We leverage BLAST analysis to examine the genetic diversity and conservation of the vanA gene across strains of all three species from both patients. Additionally, we confirm findings of previous studies conducted independently on each patient.