Epidemiologic typing of Staphylococcus aureus by DNA restriction fragment length polymorphisms of rRNA genes: elucidation of the clonal nature of a group of bacteriophage-nontypeable, ciprofloxacin-resistant, methicillin-susceptible S. aureus isolates.

Analysis of DNA restriction fragment length polymorphisms of rRNA genes (ribotyping) was employed to assist in the epidemiologic investigation of the emergence and spread of ciprofloxacin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus at the Atlanta VA Medical Center because many isolates of interest were nontypeable by phages and harbored few plasmids useful as strain markers. Chromosomal DNAs of selected S. aureus isolates were digested initially with 20 different restriction enzymes. EcoRI appeared to give the best discrimination of hybridization banding patterns (ribotypes) and was used with all study isolates. Overall, 15 different ribotypes were seen among the 50 S. aureus isolates studied (7 ribotypes among 13 methicillin-susceptible S. aureus [MSSA] isolates and 9 ribotypes among 37 methicillin-resistant S. aureus [MRSA] isolates). Seven of eight ciprofloxacin-resistant MSSA (CR-MSSA) patient isolates had identical antibiograms, were nontypeable by phages, and had a single 22-MDa plasmid. Six of these seven CR-MSSA isolates had an identical ribotype pattern. Ribotyping distinguished this CR-MSSA strain or clone from MRSA and other MSSA isolates, including nontypeable isolates that contained a 22-MDa plasmid. Five ciprofloxacin-susceptible MSSA isolates studied had five ribotypes; one pattern was identical to the CR-MSSA clone. Twenty-three CR-MRSA isolates recovered from the Atlanta VA Medical Center had four different ribotypes. Ribotyping proved to be a useful molecular epidemiologic tool in the study of S. aureus because it differentiated isolates which were indistinguishable by more traditional methods. In addition, this technique demonstrated that at our institution, ciprofloxacin resistance emerged in multiple strains of MRSA, as opposed to primarily a single strain or clone of MSSA.