Dingle Yu: Microbiology Laboratory, National Center for Children's Health, Beijing Pediatric Research Institute, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Yunmei Liang: Beijing Chaoyang Hospital Affiliated to the Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Qinghua Lu: Microbiology Laboratory, National Center for Children's Health, Beijing Pediatric Research Institute, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Yonghong Yang: Microbiology Laboratory, National Center for Children's Health, Beijing Pediatric Research Institute, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
is a bacterial pathogen that causes a wide spectrum of clinical diseases exclusively in humans. The distribution of type, antibiotic resistance and virulence gene expression for varies temporally and geographically, resulting in distinct disease spectra. In this study, we analyzed antibiotic resistance and resistance gene expression patterns among isolates from pediatric patients in China and investigated the relationship between virulence gene expression, type, and disease categories. Forty-two representative 1.0 and 12.0 strains ( = 20 and = 22, respectively) isolated from patients with scarlet fever or obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome were subjected to whole-genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. These strains were further analyzed for susceptibility to vancomycin. We found a high rate and degree of resistance to macrolides and tetracycline in these strains, which mainly expressed and . The disease category correlated with type but not superantigens. The distribution of and virulence genes were associated with type. Previously reported important prophages, such as φHKU16.vir, φHKU488.vir, Φ5005.1, Φ5005.2, and Φ5005.3 encoding streptococcal toxin, and integrative conjugative elements (ICEs) such as ICE-emm12 and ICE-HKU397 encoding macrolide and tetracycline resistance were found present amongst 1 or 12 clones from Shenzhen, China.
