Identification of a Novel Variant of Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec , Type II.5, and Its Truncated Form by Insertion of Putative Conjugative Transposon Tn 6012

Abstract

We identified two novel staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCC mec ) elements in sequence type 8 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated in Japan: type II.5 SCC mec , whose J1 region was highly homologous to that of type I.2 SCC mec of strain PL72 (previously isolated in Poland), and its J1 region variant caused by the deletion/insertion of putative conjugative transposon Tn 6012 , identified in four S. aureus genomes.