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SCCmec and other mobile genetic elements associated with methicillin resistance in staphylococci.
Kubištová, Lucie ; Lichá, Irena (advisor) ; Plocek, Vítězslav (referee)
Staphylococci are common part of human flora but also they are a dangerous pathogen. Among staphylococci strains, methicillin resistance is widespread. The mecA gene, organized in mec complex, is responsible for methicillin resistance. The mec complex is part of mobile genetic element - staphylococcal chromosome cassette SCCmec. SCCmec is large variable mobile genetic element and it is always composed of three parts - mec complex, ccr complex and J regions. Complex mec consists of mecA gene and its regulatory genes mecR1 and mecI. Complex ccr encodes recombinase genes, they are responsible for excision and insertion of SCCmec. J regions are remaining parts of SCCmec, which include other mobile genetic elements that directly influence methicillin resistance genes expression or carry genes for resistance to other antimicrobial agents. SCCmec or its parts can be transferred by horizontal gene transfer between staphylococci both intraspecific and interspecific, although mechanism of its transfer is still unknown. Eleven types of SCCmec have been described so far. In this thesis, I summarized the findings about molecular composition of SCCmec, horizontal gene transfer of the genes encoding methicillin resistance and molecular evolution of SCCmec. Mobile genetic elements play a key role in evolution and...
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Study of persistence phenomenon at Staphylococcus aureus
Kubištová, Lucie ; Lichá, Irena (advisor) ; Melter, Oto (referee)
Staphylococcus aureus is human pathogen and is causative factor of many diseases with different character, from light infections of the skin to life-threatening sepsis. S. aureus often colonizes cystic fibrosis patient's lungs and causes long-standing pneumonia, which can cause death in these patients. Infection caused by S. aureus are, as most of the infections, treated with antibiotics. Failure in treatment is caused because of presence of resistant strains. It was shown, that treatment failure can be caused by different type of the antibiotic tolerance - by the persistence. Persisters are phenotypic variants of isogenic bacterial population, that is unaffected by antibiotic treatment even though they don't have genetics determinants of the resistance. The phenomenon of the persistence in bacteria is still relatively poorly understood. The aim of my thesis was to contribute to the characterization of the persistence in S. aureus. We have optimized a method for rapid identification of persisters' amount in the bacterial population after treatment with antibiotics using the method of measuring the killing curves. We have found out, that exposure to osmotic stress causes increase in number of persistence in the bacterial population by 1 - 2,5 order. Using quantitative PCR method we have analyzed the...
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