Comparison of the DiversiLab™ system, Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis and Multi-Locus Sequence Typing for the characterization of epidemic reference MRSA strains

We have analyzed a representative selection of the HARMONY meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain collection originating from 11 European countries (Cookson, B.D. et al., 2007, J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 1830–1837) with the DiversiLab™ System, Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) and Multi-Locus Sequence Typing (MLST). Simpson's diversity indices were 0.905, 0.877 and 0.860 for PFGE, MLST and DiversiLab™, respectively. All methods displayed concordant classification of the MRSA strains, although with divergent resolution and reproducibility.