Epidemiological study on the relationship between toxin production and psm‐mec mutations in MRSA isolates in Thailand

In this present study, we investigated the phenol‐soluble modulin (psm‐mec) mutations, the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) types, and toxin production in 102 methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates from the northeast and central regions of Thailand. The MRSA isolates carrying ‐7T>C psm‐mec in Type II SCCmec (n = 18) and the MRSA isolates carrying no psm‐mec in Type IV (n = 8) or Type IX SCCmec (n = 4) had higher hemolytic activity against sheep erythrocytes than MRSA isolates carrying intact psm‐mec in Type III SCCmec (n = 34), but MRSA isolates carrying no psm‐mec in Type I SCCmec (n = 27) did not.