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The Staphylococcaceae are a family of Bacillota comprised of nine formal genera which are Gram-positive, chemoorganotrophic, non-motile and facultative anaerobes [Schleifer09, Madhaiyan20]. Of the genera within this family, the type genus Staphylococcus is arguably the most well-known due to the recognized pathogenic capacity of the species Staphylococcus aureus observed in the last three decades, with terms such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant S. aureus) and CA-MRSA (community-acquired methicillin resistant S. aureus) becoming colloquial terms by the mid-2000s [Easton09, Tong15, Bouchoucha19]. Commonly found as a commensal microbe living within the nasopharyngeal areas and on the skin of up to 30% of humans and also found on other mammals, colonization by S. aureus is most often harmless and asymptomatic [Wertheim05, Tong15, Ford20].
However, S. aureus is also a leading cause of food poisoning, bacteremia, endocarditis, skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs), and osteoarticular (osteomyelitis), pleuropulmonary (pneumonia) and device-related infections worldwide [Ong13, Reizner14, Holland14, Tong15]. The pan-genome of S. aureus encodes a vast array of toxins and other virulence factors which aid evasion from the host immune system and facilitate persistent infections; an analysis of 64 phylogenetically, ecologically and phenotypically heterogeneous strains of S. aureus conducted in 2016 also identified that 38% of the pan genome-encoded virulence factors, such as cytotoxins and polysaccharide capsule biosynthesis genes, were also present in the core-genome [Zecconi13, Tong15, Bosi16, Cheung21].
In addition to the presence of multiple virulence factors, the drug resistance of MRSA and CA-MRSA strains of S. aureus is a significant contributing factor to its status as a leading pathogen [Guo20, Cheung21]. Whilst the widespread presence of beta-lactam resistance in these strains of S. aureus is problematic, complete resistance to the drug of last resort often used for serious and life-threatening S. aureus infections, the glycopeptide vancomycin, has been observed since 2002 and is increasing [vanHal12, Cong20].
This PGDB is based on the genome of the model strain Staphylococcus aureus aureus NCTC 8325, a strain isolated from a patient with sepsis in 1960 and utilized as the propagating strain for phage 47 of the international phage-typing system [Herbert10]. S. aureus NCTC 8325 was initially chosen for research due to its antibiotic susceptibility, and today the strain and its many derivatives, such as the phage-cured S. aureus NCTC 8325-4, are the most commonly used strains for experimental studies in the species [Iandolo02, Herbert10].
This Pathway/Genome Database (PGDB) was generated on 28-Nov-2017 by the PathoLogic [Karp10, Karp11, Caspi14] component of Pathway Tools software version 22.0 and MetaCyc version 21.5. The PGDB integrates the biochemical reaction network and metabolic pathways of the organism with its genome.