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Infection and Immunity, August 2006, p. 4724-4734, Vol. 74, No. 8
0019-9567/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00132-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Staphylococcal Enterotoxin-Like Toxins U2 and V, Two New Staphylococcal Superantigens Arising from Recombination within the Enterotoxin Gene Cluster

Damien Yann Thomas,¹ Sophie Jarraud,¹ Brigitte Lemercier,² Gregoire Cozon,¹ Klara Echasserieau,³ Jerome Etienne,¹ Marie-Lise Gougeon,² Gerard Lina,^1, and François Vandenesch^1,*

INSERM, E0230, Lyon, F-69008, France, and Université Lyon 1, Centre National de Référence des Staphylocoques, Faculté Laennec, Lyon, F-69008 France,¹ Antiviral Immunity, Biotherapy and Vaccine Unit, INSERM U668, Molecular Medicine Departement, Institut Pasteur, 28, rue du Dr Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France,² INSERM U463, Institut de Biologie, 9 Quai Moncousu, 44093 Nantes Cedex 01, France³

Received 26 January 2006/ Returned for modification 18 March 2006/ Accepted 13 April 2006

To test the hypothesis that the Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin gene cluster (egc) can generate new enterotoxin genes by recombination, we analyzed the egc locus in a broad panel of 666 clinical isolates of S. aureus. egc was present in 63% of isolates, confirming its high prevalence. The archetypal organization of the egc locus, consisting of five enterotoxin genes plus two pseudogenes, was found in 409 of 421 egc-positive strains. The egc locus was incomplete in a few strains and occasionally harbored an insertion sequence and transposase genes. These strains may represent evolutionary intermediates of the egc locus. One strain with an atypical egc locus produced two new enterotoxins, designated SElV and SElU2, generated by (i) recombination between selm and sei, producing selv, and (ii) a limited deletion in the ent1-ent2 pseudogenes, producing selu2. Recombinant SElV and SElU2 had superantigen activity, as they specifically activated the T-cell families Vß 6, Vß 18, and Vß 21 (SElV) and Vß 13.2 and Vß 14 (SElU2). Immunoscope analysis showed a Gaussian CDR3 size distribution of T-cell receptor Vß chain junctional transcripts of expanded Vß subsets in toxin-stimulated cultures, reflecting a high level of polyclonality. These data show that egc is indeed capable of generating new superantigen genes through recombination.

Editor: J. T. Barbieri

Equal senior authors.

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