Staphylococcus aureus¶

Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen responsible for a wide range of infections, from uncomplicated skin and soft-tissue infections to bacteraemia, endocarditis, osteomyelitis, and healthcare-associated pneumonia. Resistance to methicillin (MRSA) and emerging resistance to last-resort agents such as vancomycin, daptomycin, and linezolid are a sustained global concern and are tracked by the WHO Bacterial Priority Pathogens List.

The AMRnet S. aureus view integrates public genomic surveillance to summarise geographic and temporal trends in antimicrobial resistance, lineage distribution, and the presence of key resistance determinants.

Note

The S. aureus module is in preparation. This page will be expanded with variable definitions, lineage schemes, and the full list of source studies once the first data release is available.

Variable definitions¶

  • Genotypes (MLST): 7-locus sequence types from the S. aureus MLST scheme hosted by PubMLST.

  • Clonal complexes (CC): groupings of closely related STs (e.g., CC5, CC8, CC22, CC30, CC398) that define the major globally circulating lineages.

  • spa type: polymorphism of the protein A gene, commonly used alongside MLST for finer-grained typing.

  • SCCmec type: the staphylococcal cassette chromosome carrying mecA / mecC; determines MRSA status and is typed by cassette architecture.

  • AMR determinants: acquired and mutation-based determinants of resistance to ÎČ-lactams (mecA, mecC, blaZ), macrolides / lincosamides / streptogramins B (erm, msr, mph), aminoglycosides (aac(6’)-aph(2’’), aph(3’), ant(4’)), tetracyclines (tet(K), tet(M), tet(L)), fluoroquinolones (gyrA, grlA mutations), trimethoprim (dfrA, dfrG, dfrK), fusidic acid (fusA mutations, fusB, fusC), mupirocin (mupA/mupB), linezolid (cfr, 23S rRNA mutations), vancomycin (vanA — rare), and daptomycin (mprF mutations).

  • Virulence: Panton-Valentine leukocidin (lukS-PV/lukF-PV), toxic shock syndrome toxin (tst), exfoliative toxins (eta, etb, etd), and enterotoxin genes.

Abbreviations¶

  • MRSA: methicillin-resistant S. aureus (carriage of mecA or mecC).

  • MSSA: methicillin-susceptible S. aureus.

  • VRSA: vancomycin-resistant S. aureus (MIC ≄ 16 mg/L, typically vanA-mediated).

  • VISA / hVISA: vancomycin-intermediate / heterogeneous-intermediate S. aureus.

  • CA-MRSA / HA-MRSA: community- vs healthcare-associated MRSA.

  • LA-MRSA: livestock-associated MRSA (predominantly CC398).

Data source¶

Source studies and BioProject accessions will be listed here once the S. aureus data release is published.