Characterization of 14 serotype variants of the pneumococcal Spain9V-3 clone spread in Cordoba, Argentina

ALBARRACIN ORIO, ANDREA; CORTES, PAULO; TREGNAGHI, MIGUEL; PIÑAS, GERMÁN; ECHENIQUE, JOSE

Society of General Microbiology

Lugar: London; Año: 2008 vol. 57 p. 992 - 992

p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN-RIGHT: -33.8pt" class="MsoNormal">The penicillin-resistant Spain9V-3 clone of Streptococcus pneumoniae is widespread and presents different serotype variants originated by recombination of the capsular genes. In this work, the genetic relatedness of 29 invasive pneumococci isolated from the central region of Argentina, was assessed by MLST. All the penicillin-resistant isolates belonged to a serotype 14 variant of the Spain9V-3 clone. This clone was predominant, suggesting that it was responsible of the penicillin-resistance spread in our region. Interestingly, the Argentinean serotype 14 variant was differentiated from the European one by the pbp1a gene, suggesting a different recombinational replacement of the capsular genes. The putative recombinational sites were analyzed, resulting in the proximal crossover point being clearly localized in the spr0309 gene, with the