Abstract

Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) lineage USA300 is the major cause of skin and soft tissue infection in the United States, and clonal variants that cause outbreaks have become public health emergencies. We recently described a genotypic cluster of an USA300 outbreak that emerged in Brooklyn (USA300-BKV). The persistence of the Brooklyn disease cluster enabled us to use phylogenetic analysis to identify a unique prophage that promoted skin lesions. Until now, it was unknown how the USA300-BKV-associated prophage enhanced virulence during skin infection. In this seminar, I will present our studies identifying a prophage encoded adenine methyltransferase, and how this enzyme impact USA300 pathogenesis via epigenetic regulation of the staphylococcal virulon.