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1 ,3 Department
of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science1 and
Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine3
, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
2 National Center for Agricultural Research and
Technology Transfer, Amman, Jordan
A total of
100 Jordanian clinical Staphylococcus aureus isolates
was analysed for the presence of the enterotoxin genes
sea, seb, sec, sed and
see using multiplex PCR. Twenty-three isolates
(23 %) were potentially enterotoxigenic. The prevalence of
sea, sec and sea plus sec
among the total clinical isolates was 15, 4 and 4 %,
respectively. None of the isolates harboured sed,
seb or see genes. S. aureus isolates
were subjected to DNA fingerprinting by randomly
amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis to test
whether isolates harbouring the toxin genes were genetically
clustered. A total of 13 genotypes was identified at a 47
% similarity level. Genotypes I and V accounted for
the largest number of enterotoxigenic isolates (19
%). This study has demonstrated the genetic diversity
of Jordanian clinical S. aureus isolates and
shown that the presence of the toxin genes is not genotype
specific.
Abbreviations: RAPD, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA;
SE, staphylococcal enterotoxin |