Staphylococcus aureus can survive at low temperature which existed a potential risk of food safety. In this paper, the properties of cold-induced small colony variants (SCVs) were investigated including the antibiotic resistance, biofilm formation and virulence. The results confirmed that the SCVs were menadione auxotrophic types with slow growth, reduced membrane potential, increased resistance to aminoglycosides, ampicillin, cefotetan, doxycycline and chloromycetin. Additionally, the biofilm formation of SCVs was enhanced following the up-regulated of icaADBC genes. The biofilms of S. aureus cells can be effectively eliminated by 1% concentration of ‘84′ disinfection and 3% concentration of hydrogen peroxide. Furthermore, SCVs could revert to a normal phenotype through subculture. And the reversion mutation (R) cells increased expression of virulence factors. The findings in this paper enriched the cataloguing of SCV formation.

金黄色葡萄球菌可以在低温下生存，存在食品安全的潜在风险。在本文中，研究了冷诱导的小菌落变异体（SCV）的特性，包括抗生素抗性，生物膜形成和毒力。结果证实SCV为甲萘醌营养型，生长缓慢，膜电位降低，对氨基糖苷类，氨苄青霉素，头孢替坦，强力霉素和氯霉素的抵抗力增加。另外，随着icaADBC基因的上调，SCV的生物膜形成得以增强。金黄色葡萄球菌的生物膜浓度为1％的“ 84”消毒液和浓度为3％的过氧化氢可以有效地消除细胞。此外，SCV可以通过传代培养恢复为正常表型。回复突变（R）细胞增加了毒力因子的表达。本文的发现丰富了SCV形成的分类。