CHAPTER TWO

2.0 Literature review

2.1 Scientific classification

1 Staphylococci is classified based on the morphological characteristics of the organism.

The taxonomy is based on 16s rRNA sequences (Takahashi et 2009), land most of the
staphylococcal species fall into 11 clusters:

S. aureus group - S. aureus, S. simiae

S. auricularis group — s. auricularis

S. carnosus group -S. carnosus, S. condimenti, S. massiliensis, S. piscifermentans, S.

simulans
S. epidermidis group-S. capitis, S. caprae, S. epidermidis, S. saccharolyticus

S. haemolyticus group - S. devriesei, S. haemolyticus, S. hominis

S. hyicus-intermedius group-S, chromogenes, S. felis, S. delphini, S. hyicus, s.

Iintermedius, S. lutrae, S. microti, S. muscae, S. pseudintermedius, S. rostri, s. bchleijeri
S. lugdunensis group - s. lugdunensis
S. saprophyticus group-S. arlettae, S. cohnii, S. equorum, s. gallinarum, s. kloosii, S. leei,
S. nepalensis, S. saprophyticus, S. succinus, S. xylosus S. sciurigroup - S. fleurettiif S.

lentus, S. sciuri, S. Stepanovicii,s. vitulinus S. simulans group-S. simulans

S. warneri group -S. pasteuri, S. warneri

j tna&DCOCCUf, the species of ٦hich are currently the closest known relative‫ ؛‬of the
Staphylococci (Kloos etal./ 2008).

2.2 Subspecies S'aureus subsp. aureus S. aureus subsp. anaerobius

S٠ capitis subsp. capitis

 s. capitis subsp. urealyticus

S. carnosus subsp. carnosus

S. carnosus subsp. utilis

S. cohnii subsp. cohnii

S. cohnii subsp. urealyticus

S. equorum subsp. equorum

S. equorum subsp. linens

S. hominis subsp. hominis

S. hominis subsp. novobiosepticus

s. saprophyticus subsp. bovis

s. saprophyticus subsp. saprophyticus?

s. schleiferi subsp. coagulans

s. schleiferi subsp. schleiferi

s.sciurisubsp. carnaticus

S. sciuri subsp. rodentium

S. sciuri subsp. sciuri

s.succinussubsp. casei

S. succinus subsp. succinus

2.3 Biochemical identification

Assignment of a strain to the genus Staphylococcus requires it to be a Gram- ,positive

coccus that forms clusters, produces catalase, has an appropriate cell wall

‫؛‬structure (including peptidoglycan type and teichoic acid presence) and G c ‫؛‬content

of DNA in a range of 30-40 mol% (Ryan and Ray 2004).

Staphylococcus species can be differentiated from other aerobic and facultative

anaerobic. Gram-positive cocci by several simple tests. Staphylococcus spp. are

facultative anaerobes (capable of growth both aerobically and anaerobically). All