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This article has been retracted

Science 6 April 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5514, pp. 114 - 116
DOI: 10.1126/science.1056495
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Reports

A Link Between Virulence and Ecological Abundance in Natural Populations of Staphylococcus aureus

Nicholas P. J. Day,1* Catrin E. Moore,1 Mark C. Enright,2dagger Anthony R. Berendt,1 John Maynard Smith,3 Michael F. Murphy,4 Sharon J. Peacock,5 Brian G. Spratt,2ddagger Edward J. Feil2dagger

Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of severe infection in humans and yet is carried without symptoms by a large proportion of the population. We used multilocus sequence typing to characterize isolates of S. aureus recovered from asymptomatic nasal carriage and from episodes of severe disease within a defined population. We identified a number of frequently carried genotypes that were disproportionately common as causes of disease, even taking into account their relative abundance among carriage isolates. The existence of these ecologically abundant hypervirulent clones suggests that factors promoting the ecological fitness of this important pathogen also increase its virulence.

1 Centre for Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK.
2 Wellcome Trust Centre for the Epidemiology of Infectious Disease, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3FY.
3 School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK.
4 National Blood Service, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK.
5 Nuffield Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nick.day{at}ndm.ox.ac.uk

dagger    Present address: Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK.

ddagger    Present address: Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College School of Medicine, St. Mary's Campus, Norfolk Place, London, W2 1PG, UK.

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