MRSA: Host Adaptation and Transmission

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a major public health threat. It resists beta-lactam antibiotics because it carries the mecA gene inside the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec, or SCCmec. The mecA gene makes penicillin-binding protein 2a, which reduces how well methicillin and related beta-lactam...

Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microbe to withstand the effects of antibiotics.

A commonly known pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus, has developed resistance to methicillin, resulting in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

MRSA causes serious skin and soft tissue infections in humans, leading t...