is a member of the bi-component family
of staphylococcal leukocidins. In the CA-MRSA
epidemic, PVL genes lukS and lukF were discovered in
CA-MRSA strains, and interestingly, PVL is typically
absent in HA-MRSA (74). Thus, PVL is supposed
to play an important role in CA-MRSA virulence.
However, two experimental results cast a damper over
the assumption. The first is that even in strains without
PVL genes , virulence is still strong (76). The second
is that isogenic PVL gene deletion mutants did not
decrease the CA-MRSA virulence in a few animal
models (77,78).
Phenol-soluble