Staphylococcus petrasii is recently described coagulase negative staphylococcal species and an opportunistic human pathogen, still often misidentified in clinical specimens. Four subspecies are distinguished in S. petrasii by polyphasic taxonomical analyses, however a comparative study has still not been done on the majority of isolates and their genome properties have not yet been thoroughly analysed. Here, we describe the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of 65 isolates and the results of de novo sequencing, whole genome assembly and annotation of draft genomes of five strains. The strains were identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry to the species level and the majority of the strains were identified to the subspecies level by fingerprinting methods, (GTG)₅ repetitive PCR and ribotyping. Macrorestriction profiling by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was confirmed to be a suitable strain typing method. Comparative genomics revealed the presence of new mobile genetic elements carrying antimicrobial resistance factors such as staphylococcal cassette chromosome (SCC) mec, transposones, phage-inducible genomic islands, and plasmids. Their mosaic structure and similarity across coagulase-negative staphylococci and Staphylococcus aureus suggest the possible exchange of these elements. Numerous putative virulence factors such as adhesins, autolysins, exoenzymes, capsule formation genes, immunomodulators, the phage-associated sasX gene, and SCC-associated spermidine N-acetyltransferase gene, pseudouridine and sorbitol utilization operons might explain clinical manifestations of S. petrasii isolates. The increasing recovery of S. petrasii isolates from human clinical material, the multi-drug resistance including methicillin resistance of S. petrasii subsp. jettensis strains, and virulence factors homologous to other pathogenic staphylococci demonstrate the importance of the species in human disease.

最近描述了petrasii葡萄球菌是凝固酶阴性葡萄球菌种和一种机会性人类病原体，在临床标本中仍然经常被误认。通过多相分类学分析将S. petrasii中的四个亚种区分开来，但是对大多数分离株的比较研究尚未完成，并且它们的基因组特性尚未得到全面分析。在这里，我们描述了65个菌株的表型和基因型特征，以及从头测序，五种菌株的全基因组装配和草图基因组注释的结果。菌株通过MALDI-TOF质谱鉴定到物种水平，大多数菌株通过指纹图谱（GTG）鉴定到亚种水平。₅重复PCR和核糖分型。通过脉冲场凝胶电泳进行的宏观限制性谱分析被证实是一种合适的菌株分型方法。比较基因组学揭示了携带抗微生物抗性因子的新的可移动遗传元件的存在，例如葡萄球菌盒式染色体（SCC）mec，转座子，噬菌体可诱导的基因组岛和质粒。它们的镶嵌结构以及在凝固酶阴性葡萄球菌和金黄色葡萄球菌之间的相似性暗示了这些元素的可能交换。多种假定的毒力因子，例如粘附素，自溶素，外切酶，胶囊形成基因，免疫调节剂，噬菌体相关的sasX基因，以及与SCC相关的亚精胺N-乙酰基转移酶基因，假尿苷和山梨醇利用操纵子可能解释了petrasii分离株的临床表现。从人类临床材料中分离出的佩氏链球菌分离物回收率不断提高，其中包括佩氏链球菌亚种的耐甲氧西林等多药耐药性。Jettensis菌株和与其他致病性葡萄球菌同源的毒力因子证明了该物种在人类疾病中的重要性。