Figure 5

Clustering of Staphyococcus lineages. a, Genomic comparison among the Staphyococcus strains. Strains: 1–31, S. aureus (ED98, N315, Mu50, JH1, Mu3, ECT-R 2, 04–02981, JH9, VC40, NCTC8325, USA300_TCH1516, USA300_FPR3757, COL, Newman, TW20, JKD6008, T0131, 11819–97, MW2, MSSA476, HO 5096 0412, S0385, 71193, MRSA252, TCH60, JKD6159, M013, RF122, ED133, LGA251, MSHR1132); 32 & 33, S. epidermidis (RP62A, ATCC 12228); and 34, S. carnosus TM300. Upper panel: S. aureus ED98 genome as the target, with all the other 33 genomes compared to it; middle panel: S. aureus JKD6159 genome as the target, with all the other 33 genomes compared to it; lower panel: S. epidermidis RP62A genome as the target, with all the other 33 genomes compared to it. b, Phylogenetic tree for the S. aureus strains based on conserved sequences that are concatenated and aligned for tree construction. Some strains form clusters as tightly as those of Salmonella lineages or Y. pestis, suggesting a taxonomic species of Staphyococcus may actually contain multiple natural species, each being as cohesive as a Salmonella lineage.