Streptococcus pyogenes strain:M3KCL Genome sequencing and assembly. Streptococcus pyogenes strain:M3KCL

Streptococcus pyogenes, also known as Group A Streptococcus (GAS), is a strict human pathogen and almost 10% children carry this pathogen in their pharynx without signs or symptoms (Shaikh, Leonard et al., 2010). This pathogen causes diverse diseases from mild, self-limiting superficial infections to toxigenic or invasive diseases. The diseases include strep throat, impetigo, scarlet fever, streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, rheumatic fever, and necrotizing fasciitis (Cunningham, 2000). We sequenced a serotype M3 strain isolated from the blood of a human patient. Often, serotype M3 strains cause an epidemic of invasive disease (Beres, Sylva et al., 2004). When we compared the genome sequence with publically available genome sequences of two serotype M3 strains, MGAS315 and SSI-1, the sequence of this strain was closer to the MGAS315 strain. However, unlike MGAS315, this strain secrets the cysteine protease SpeB, a major virulence factor in the GAS pathogenesis. It appears that this strain has not developed antibiotic resistance and is sensitive to the antibiotics of ampicillin, clindamycin, cefazolin, erythromycin, cefoxitin, penicillin, cefotaxime, vancomycin, levofloxacin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, teicoplanin