Molecular Epidemiology and Comparative Genome Analysis of Clinically-isolated MRSA Strains in Indonesia

Objective: (MRSA) analyzed to date have been from industrialized countries, with information lacking on the epidemiology of MRSA in other regions of the world. The present study describes the molecular epidemiology of MRSA strains collected at a referral hospital in Surabaya City, Indonesia in 2015-2016. The similarity of strains isolated in Indonesia to known lineages of MRSA was investigated. Materials: ) types and mutual phylogenetic relationships, using standard analytical tools. Results: The molecular types of these MRSA strains showed significant diversity. Complete sequencing of the genome of strain IDSA1 showed that it belonged to the ST239 group, while also having unique mobile genetic elements. Conclusions: Despite the small number of MRSA strains collected in a limited area and over a short period of time, these strains were found to have arisen in many other regions of the world, suggesting that they had migrated into Indonesia through human movement. These strains also showed molecular differentiation after migrating into Indonesia.