The team from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge looked at the genomes of MRSA strains from across the globe and at one hospital in Thailand.
They were able to spot small changes that allowed them to track the strain back to an individual patient.
They say this adds to the understanding of how MRSA can spread so rapidly and should lead to better treatments.
DNA sequencing
The research, which is published in the journal Science, involved teams in the UK, Thailand, Portugal and the United States.
Scientists used new high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies to compare MRSA samples from patients to show how they were genetically related.
They were able to spot single-letter differences in the genetic code.
They looked at two different sets of samples: one set taken from people across the globe and another from a single hospital in Thailand.
They sequenced the entire genomes of each sample.
In the hospital setting it revealed single letter genetic changes in the samples showing that no two infections were caused by entirely identical bacteria.
This allowed them to discover whether one patient had infected another or whether the infection had come in from another source.
They found that the MRSA strain studied acquired about one single-letter change in its genetic code every six weeks.
Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8471137.stm
They were able to spot small changes that allowed them to track the strain back to an individual patient.
They say this adds to the understanding of how MRSA can spread so rapidly and should lead to better treatments.
DNA sequencing
The research, which is published in the journal Science, involved teams in the UK, Thailand, Portugal and the United States.
Scientists used new high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies to compare MRSA samples from patients to show how they were genetically related.
They were able to spot single-letter differences in the genetic code.
They looked at two different sets of samples: one set taken from people across the globe and another from a single hospital in Thailand.
They sequenced the entire genomes of each sample.
In the hospital setting it revealed single letter genetic changes in the samples showing that no two infections were caused by entirely identical bacteria.
This allowed them to discover whether one patient had infected another or whether the infection had come in from another source.
They found that the MRSA strain studied acquired about one single-letter change in its genetic code every six weeks.
Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8471137.stm
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