Staphylococcus aureus
Overview
Staphylococcus aureus (icon; meaning the "golden grape-cluster berry", and also known as "golden staph" and Oro staphira) is a facultative anaerobic
Gram-positive
coccal
bacterium. It is frequently found as part of the normal skin flora
on the skin and nasal passages. It is estimated that 20% of the human population are long-term carriers of S. aureus. S. aureus is the most common species of staphylococci to cause Staph infections.
Facultative anaerobic organism
A facultative anaerobic organism is an organism, usually a bacterium, that makes ATP by aerobic respiration if oxygen is present but is also capable of switching to fermentation...
Gram-positive
Gram-positive
Gram-positive bacteria are those that are stained dark blue or violet by Gram staining. This is in contrast to Gram-negative bacteria, which cannot retain the crystal violet stain, instead taking up the counterstain and appearing red or pink...
coccal
Coccus
Coccus can be used to describe any bacterium that has a spherical shape. It is one of the three distinct types of bacteria shapes, the other two being bacillus and spirillum cells...
bacterium. It is frequently found as part of the normal skin flora
Skin flora
The skin flora are the microorganisms which reside on the skin. Most research has been upon those that reside upon the 2 square metres of human skin. Many of them are bacteria of which there are around 1000 species upon human skin from 19 phyla. The total number of bacteria on an average human has...
on the skin and nasal passages. It is estimated that 20% of the human population are long-term carriers of S. aureus. S. aureus is the most common species of staphylococci to cause Staph infections.
