Towards a genotyping system for Streptococcus agalactiae (group B streptococcus):: use of mobile genetic elements in Australasian invasive isolates

This study forms part of the development of an integrated genotyping system for Streptococcus agalactiae (group B streptococcus, GBS) that can be used to study the population genetics of the organism and the pathogenesis and epidemiology of GBS disease. In recent previous studies, two sets of markers, the capsular polysaccharide synthesis (cps) gene cluster and surface protein antigen genes, have been used to assign molecular serotypes (MS) and protein-gene profiles (PGP) to more than 200 isolates. In the present study, five mobile genetic elements (MGE) have been used as a third set of markers, to characterize further 194 invasive isolates, recovered from blood or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Of these, 97 % contained one or more of the five MGE, the distribution of which was related to MS and PGP, as illustrated by MIS III, which is divisible into four serosubtypes with different combinations of the MGE (or none). Fifty-six different genotypes and eight genetic clusters were identified, each with different combinations of the three sets of molecular markers. Five predominant genotypes (Ia-1, Ib-1, III-1, III-2 and V-1) contained 62 % of the isolates and five of the eight genetic clusters contained 92 % of the isolates. The 17 CSF isolates were relatively widely distributed between 10 genotypes and across seven of the eight clusters. Further study is needed to determine whether these genotypes or clusters share common markers of increased virulence. In future, comparison of invasive with colonizing strains of GBS may elucidate the significance of these findings.