Abstract:
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of health-care associated
infections. There is a growing concern of community-acquired MRSA strains worldwide that
are responsible for skin and soft tissue infection. One such emerging clone of CA-MRSA is
ST772, which is MRSA SCCmec type-V and is globally disseminated strain. During past
decades, rates of MRSA infections have increased rapidly among the general population of
Pakistan. To track and characterize MRSA strains in Pakistan, we collected an isolate LrCW
from Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Lahore, Pakistan in March 2018. The isolate was
found resistant against 13 different antibiotics including, Ampicillin, Methicillin, Oxacillin,
Gentamycin, Meropenem, Erythromycin, Linezolid, Cefixime, Cefepime, Colistin Sulphate,
Trimethoprim, Ciprofloxacin. Whole genome sequencing was employed for the isolate due to
the high resistant profile using Illumina NGS technology. It produced a total of 241,931 bp
reads and genome assembly produced 30 contigs with the total genome size of 274,0823 bp
with 32.68% GC contents. Genome analysis revealed that MRSA strain LrCW belongs to
ST772 and carrying SCCmec type-V. The genome was also found to have mobile genetic
elements including plasmid, prophage and pathogenicity islands. These mobile genetic
elements were found to have a number of genes associated with resistance and virulence that
contributed to the emergence of MDR, and highly virulent strain of CA-MRSA in Pakistan
