Genotyping and characterization of prophage patterns in clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus.

Objective: Staphylococcus aureus is considered an important pathogen with a variety of virulence factors in communities and hospitals all around the world. Prophage typing is a practical technique for categorizing this bacterium. In this study, we focused on the detection of prophage patterns in methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) strains based on their virulence factors, antimicrobial resistance patterns, and molecular typing by rep-PCR.
Results: Out of 126 S. aureus isolates, 45 (35.7%) were identified as MRSA. In total, 17 different prophage types were detected and 112 strains out of 126 strains contained at least one prophage. There was a statistically significant relationship between hld, hlg, eta and SGA, SGA, and SGFb, respectively. The results of the rep-PCR analysis revealed 14 different patterns among the MRSA and MSSA isolates. In conclusion, the presence of different prophage-encoded virulence factors and antibiotic-resistant genes among MRSA strains enables them to produce a broad range of diseases. Thus, diverse MRSA strains which have these prophages can be considered as a potential threat to the patient's health in either the hospital or the community.