Associations between capsular serotype, multilocus sequence type, and macrolide resistance in Streptococcus agalactiae isolates from Japanese infants with invasive infections

Abstract

SUMMARY Streptococcus agalactiae (group B streptococcus; GBS) isolates (n = 150) from infants with invasive infections between 2006 and 2011 were analysed for capsular serotype, multilocus sequence type, and antibiotic susceptibility. In cases with late-onset disease (n = 115), primary meningitis was predominant (62.6%), but represented only 39.1% in cases with early-onset disease (n = 23). The most common serotype was III (58.7%), followed by Ia (21.3%) and Ib (12.7%). Sequence types (STs) of serotype III strains included ST17 (50.0%), ST19 (26.1%), ST335 (18.2%), ST27 (4.5%), and ST1 (1.1%). Predominant STs of serotypes Ia and Ib were ST23 (81.3%) and ST10 (84.2%), respectively. No penicillin-resistant strains were detected, but 22·0% of strains had mef(A/E), erm(A), or erm(B) genes, which mediate macrolide resistance. A new ST335, possessing an mef(A/E) gene belonging to clonal complex 19 gradually increased in frequency. Improved prevention of invasive GBS infections in infants requires timely identification, and ultimately vaccine development.

Fig. 1.

Neighbour-joining analysis of allelic identities of 13 sequence types (STs) in clinical isolates of GBS and three reference bovine-derived strains. Numbers at nodes are the percentages of 1000 bootstrap replicates in which these nodes appeared. Only nodes with percentages exceeding 50% were included. * Known bovine-derived strains. CC, Clonal complex