Polynucleotides and their use for detecting resistance to streptogramin a or to streptogramin B and related compounds

Abstract

The present invention pertains to polynucleotides derived from staphylococcal genes encoding resistance to streptogramin A or to streptogramin B and chemically related compounds. This invention also relates to the use of the polynucleotides as oligonucleotide primers or probes for detecting Staphylococcal strains that are resistant to streptogramin A or to streptogramin B and related compounds in a biological sample. In another embodiment, the present invention is directed to the full length coding sequences of the staphylococcal genes encoding for resistance to streptogramin A or to streptogramin B from Staphylococcus and to the polypeptides expressed by these full length coding sequences. Further, this invention relates to the use of the expressed polypeptides to produce specific monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies that serve as detection means in order to characterize any staphylococcal strain carrying genes-encoding resistance to streptogramin A or to streptogramin B.

1 . A purified polynucleotide comprising the nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 1 or a fragment derived from SEQ ID NO: 1 containing 15 to 40 nucleotides, SEQ ID NO: 11, and SEQ ID NO: 12 
     
     
         2 - 42 . (canceled)