Nanopore targeted sequencing (NTS) is reported to be advantageous in detection speed and range over culture in prior published reports. Investigation of the clinical performance of NTS is deficient at present.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) constantly evolves under host and environment pressures. The monitoring network is essential in assessing the epidemiology of S. aureus infections. A total of 555 S. aureus isolates were collected from five hospitals in three different geographical regions of China for the investigation of molecular characteristics, antibiotic resistance, virulence gene, and wall teichoic acid (WTA) glycosyltransferase gene profiles. 233 (42.0%) isolates were identified as MRSA, and 323 (58.2%) were defined as multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolates. MRSA prevalence showed no significant difference among the three regions. In contrast, the MDR prevalence was significantly higher in central China than that in northern China (63.5% vs. 50.8%, P < 0.05). Thirty-eight sequence types (STs) belonging to 17 clone complexes (CCs) and 126 distinct spa-types were identified. The most prevalent clone was ST59-t437 (9.7%, 54/555), followed by ST22-t309 (7.6%, 42/555) and ST5-t2460 (7.2%, 40/555). Most ST59-t437 and ST5-t2460 were MRSA isolates, whereas most ST22-t309 was MSSA isolates. The predominant clones varied in different geographical areas. The distribution of the pvl, etb, tsst, clfb, sdrC, sdrD, hlg, fnbA, and hla genes showed significant differences among different regions. We found five WTA glycosyltransferase gene profiles, with tarP-/tarS+/tarM-/tagN-being the most common combination. Remarkably, the tarP gene was identified in more CCs than just CC5 and CC398. All of 16 tarP-positive isolates also contained the tarS. Moreover, tarS was present in almost all S. aureus isolates except 10 ST630 isolates. The tagN gene was only detected in 10 of 12 ST630 S. aureus isolates without tarS. The tarM gene was absent in CC5 and CC398. In brief, there were regional differences among

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the molecular characteristics, antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes profiles of S. aureus isolates from Wuhan, central China. Materials and Methods: A total of 302 non-duplicate S. aureus isolates were collected successively during January-December 2018 and subjected to multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), staphylococcal protein A (spa) typing and Panton-Valentine leucocidin (PVL) and staphylococcal enterotoxin A, B, C, D, E, G, H and I (sea, seb, sec, sed, see, seg, seh and sei) detection. All methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates were additionally subjected to staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec(SCCmec) typing. Results: Of the 302 S. aureus isolates, 131 were categorised as MRSA, yielding a rate 1.4 times the average rate in China during 2018 (43.4% vs 30.9%). Thirty-one sequence types (STs) and 82 spa types were identified. The most prevalent clones were ST5-t2460 (10.9%), ST239-t030 (9.3%), ST188-t189 (7.9%) and ST59-t437 (6.3%). Notably, the continued prevalence of ST239-t030 in Wuhan differs from other areas in China. SCCmec types and subtypes I, II, III, IVa and V were present in 0.8%, 36.6%, 26.0%, 20.6% and 8.4% of MRSA isolates. A comprehensive analysis identified ST5-t2460-SCCmec II (25.2%,), ST239-t030-S CCmec III (19.8%) and ST59-t437-SCCmec IVa (7.6%) as the major clones among MRSA isolates. The genes pvl, sea, seb, sec, sed, see, seg, seh and sei were detected at respective frequencies of 11.9%, 42.1%, 49.7%, 45.0%, 20.9%, 33.8%, 60.5%, 25.8% and 66.9%. Conclusion: ST239-t030 remains one of the most prevalent clones in S. aureus isolates from Wuhan, leading us to conclude that S. aureus isolates from Wuhan possess unique molecular characteristics. The S. aureus isolates also exhibit unique antimicrobial resistance profiles and harbour relatively high numbers of enterotoxin virulence genes, compared with other reports from China.

The structure of wall-anchored glycopolymers wall teichoic acid (WTA) produced by most Gram-positive bacteria is highly variable. While most dominant Staphylococcus aureus lineages produce poly-ribitol-phosphate (RboP) WTA, the tagN, tarM -encoding ST630 lineage probably has a poly-glycerol-phosphate (GroP) WTA backbone like coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS).

By the end of December 2019, several unknown pneumonia cases who manifested as respiratory syndromes and fever were found in Wuhan, China. 1 Subsequently, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel virus classified as β-coronavirus genus, was identified in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and other respiratory samples obtained from patients with unknown pneumonia. 2 As of March 31, 2022, about 485 million confirmed cases have been reported worldwide with more than 6.1 million deaths. 3