Emergence, distribution and pathogenicity of Staphylococcus argenteus

Abstract:

Staphylococcus argenteus was identified and proposed to be a novel species closely related to S. aureus in 2015, and considered as a genetically divergent lineages within S. aureus. Most of S. argenteus strains are isolated from humans, could cause the same infections and foodborne illnesses as S. aureus, and harbor homologs of most virulence genes found in S. aureus. Because of its associations with human health, S. argenteus is a focus in more and more studies and reported in more than 20 countries/regions. It is still unclear about its global distribution, original habitat and dissemination, because this species is just recognized several years ago and is difficult to be distinguished from S. aureus. This paper reviews the recent progress on the emergence, distribution, pathogenicity and identification methods of S. argenteus.