Distribution of putative virulence genes in five most common clonal groups.

Groups are comprised of abundant clonal isolates (n>3) and their single and double locus variants as determined by MLST analysis (Fig 3) and eBURST [24]: CC21 = ST21&70, CC9 = ST9&106, CC2 = ST2&6, CC8 = ST8, 64, 90, &112, and CC40 = ST 40&114. Numbers in bold indicate percentage of isolates positive for the specified genotype for a given grouping as calculated from the number of positive versus total isolates in parentheses. Genes investigated above the dashed line encode antibiotic resistance determinants, while those below the dash are known to the pathogenicity island of E. faecalis and/or code for auxiliary enzymes (see Table 2). Antibiotic resistance genotypes encoded by genes other than those listed are not included in this table. * = putative nuclease and glycosyl hydrolase genes