Simplified protocol of gel-based multiple locus variable number of tandem repeats analysis (MLVA) for Staphylococcus aureus typing

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing, multiple locus variable number of tandem repeats analysis (MLVA) 1Staphylococcus aureus is commonly isolated in hospital wards and easily transmitted via humanto-human contact. SmaI macro-restriction of S. aureus genomic DNA followed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing has been reported to be the gold standard for S. aureus typing and for investigating the possibility of outbreaks in hospitals. 1 However, PFGE typing requires specific equipment, technical skills, is time consuming and expensive. Sabat et al. established the gel-based multiple locus variable number of tandem repeats analysis (MLVA) for S. aureus typing and Roussel et al., reported the efficiency of this approach, showing that strain clustering is concordant to PFGE typing. 2,3 The MLVA