TY - JOUR AU - Rumi, MarĂ­a Valeria AU - Huguet, Miguel J AU - Bentancor, Adriana B AU - Gentilini, Elida R PY - 2013/07/15 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - The icaA gene in staphylococci from bovine mastitis JF - The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries JA - J Infect Dev Ctries VL - 7 IS - 07 SE - Brief Original Articles DO - 10.3855/jidc.2670 UR - https://jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/23857391 SP - 556-560 AB - <p>Introduction: <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) are frequently isolated from cows with mastitis. A main virulence factor of CNS is the ability to adhere and form biofilms. The intercellular gene cluster adhesion (<em>ica</em>) operon is one factor involved in biofilm production although i<em>ca</em>-independent factors are also involved. Previous reports based on the results of <em>S. </em><em>epidermidis</em> and <em>S. aureus</em> suggested that <em>ica</em> is highly conserved between species, but this detection decreases in other CNS biofilm producers. In this study we evaluated the presence of the <em>ica</em>A gene in strains of <em>Staphylococcus</em> spp. isolated from the milk of bovines with mastitis.</p> <p>Methodology: Thirty-seven staphylococci strains were evaluated by detecting the <em>ica</em>A gene. A new set of PCR primers was designed by consensus region of eight staphylococci from GenBank. Species characterization was performed using the Kloos and Schleifer scheme.</p> <p>Results: We identified the presence of the gene in <em>S. aureus </em>(n:4), <em>S. chromogenes </em>(n:4), and <em>S. sciuri </em>strains (n:2). We also, identified the presence of the gene in <em>S. xylosus </em>(n:5) for the first time.<em> </em>The <em>ica</em>A gene was not detected in <em>S. capitis </em>(n:1)<em>, S. epidermidis</em> (n:2)<em>, S. hominis </em>(n:2), <em>S. saccharolyticus </em>(n:1), <em>S. simulans </em>(n:4) and <em>S. saprophyticus </em>(n:3). The <em>ica</em>A gene was detected in 40.54% (15/37) of the CNS evaluated.</p> <p>Conclusions: Our results confirm the presence of the <em>ica</em> operon in various species of CNS pointing to polysaccharide intercellular adhesin (PIA) as the most important component for the formation of biofilms.</p> ER -