Affiliation:
1. Département de Recherche en Bactériologie Médicale, Faculté de Médecine Alexis Carrel, Lyon, France.
Abstract
Staphylococcus schleiferi subsp. schleiferi is a coagulase-negative staphylococcus, usually present as a contaminant in human specimens. A near relative, S. schleiferi subsp. coagulans, possesses coagulase activity but has not been reported from humans. We here describe three isolates of pseudocoagulase-positive S. schleiferi subsp. schleiferi and one isolate of S. schleiferi subsp. coagulans from human patients. The pseudocoagulase from the S. schleiferi subsp. schleiferi isolates differs from S. aureus staphylocoagulase by being sensitive to a combination of protease inhibitors (aprotinin, N-ethylmaleimide, and heparin). These isolates could all easily be confused with S. aureus in a typical clinical laboratory, since they all possess a heat-stable DNase and promote clotting formation. Moreover, S. schleiferi subsp. coagulans produces protein A, and S. schleiferi subsp. schleiferi expresses a clumping factor (fibrinogen affinity factor). Southern blot hybridization with an S. aureus coa-specific probe revealed no sequence related to the coa gene in any of the S. schleiferi isolates, and their riboprobe profiles and biochemical characteristics were typical of S. schleiferi subspecies, not of S. aureus. This study demonstrates that both subspecies of S. schleiferi can promote clotting of rabbit plasma in the standard tube test for coagulase.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Reference19 articles.
1. Hydrolysis of casein by three extracellular proteolytic enzymes from Staphylococcus aureus;Arvidson S.;Acta Pathol. Microbiol. Scand. Sect. B,1973
2. Substrate specificity of three different extracellular proteolytic enzymes from Staphylococcus aureus;Bjorklind A.;Biochim. Biophys. Acta,1974
3. Construction and fine mapping of recombinant plasmid containing rrnB ribosomal RNA operon;Brosius J.;Plasmid,1991
4. Frequency of pseudocoagulase production in Staphylococcus aureus;Chomarat M.;Zentralbl. Bakteriol.,1984
5. Measures of the amount of ecological association between species;Dice L. R.;Ecology,1945
Cited by
66 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献