Efficient non-enzymatic cleavage of Staphylococcus aureus plasmid DNAs mediated by neodymium ions

Staphylococcus aureus plasmids are the main factor in the spreading of antibacterial resistance among bacterial strains that has emerged on a worldwide scale. Plasmids recovered from 12 clinical and food isolates of S. aureus were treated with 10 mM free lanthanide Nd3+ ions (non-enzymatic cleavage agent) in Hepes buffer (pH 7.5) at 70 °C. Topological forms of plasmids—closed circular (ccc), open circular (oc), and linear (lin)—produced by cleavage at different times were separated using pulsed-field agarose gel electrophoresis. The method is proposed to detect and differentiate several plasmids in the same bacterial strain according to their size.