Virulence gene profiling of GAS isolates from the Netherlands

We have constructed a targeted GAS virulence array containing 228 group A streptococcal genes. Using this array we profiled the virulence gene repertoire of 45 GAS isolates from The Netherlands. Cluster analysis of the array data for these strains successfully grouped strains by emm-type. Statistical analysis of the distribution of genes between emm-types showed that bacteriophage related genes were a significant contributor to the inter-emm-type genetic variation. However we also identified a number of non-phage genes whose distribution varied between emm-types. We hypothesise that these genes may be remnant or uncharacterised phage-related genes.