Helper Phage Mobilization of S. Aureus Superantigen Pathogenicity Island

Staphylococcus aureus has become a major health problem in hospitals, especially with the emergence of multiple antibiotic resistant strains, and deaths attributable to Staphylococcus aureus infections have recently surpassed those from AIDS. Pathogenic S. aureus can cause severe systemic infections by producing several toxins from genes carried on so-called pathogenicity islands in the bacterial genome. Understanding the mechanism by which these pathogenicity islands are mobilized by staphylococcal bacteriophages will assist in the development of strategies to inhibit the transfer of toxin genes between S. aureus strains and help slow the emergence of highly virulent, multiresistant organisms.