Local Diversification of Methicillin- Resistant ST239 in South America After Its Rapid Worldwide Dissemination.

The global spread of specific clones of methicillin-resistant (MRSA) has become a major public health problem, and understanding the dynamics of geographical spread requires worldwide surveillance. Over the past 20 years, the ST239 lineage of MRSA has been recognized as an emerging clone across the globe, with detailed studies focusing on isolates from Europe and Asia. Less is known about this lineage in South America, and, particularly, Brazil where it was the predominant lineage of MRSA in the early 1990s to 2000s.

Complete Genome Sequence of the MRSA Isolate HC1335 from ST239 Lineage Displaying a Truncated AgrC Histidine Kinase Receptor.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is still one of the most important hospital pathogen globally. The multiresistant isolates of the ST239-SCCmecIII lineage are spread over large geographic regions, colonizing and infecting hospital patients in virtually all continents. The balance between fitness (adaptability) and virulence potential is likely to represent an important issue in the clonal shift dynamics leading the success of some specific MRSA clones over another.