Complete Genome Sequences of Five Representative Staphylococcus aureus ST398 Strains from Five Major Sequence Heterogeneity Groups of a Diverse Isolate Collection.

Staphylococcus aureus sequence type 398 (ST398) is a rapidly emerging livestock-associated strain causing zoonotic disease in humans. The course of pathogen evolution remains unclear, prompting whole-genome comparative studies in attempts to elucidate this issue. We present the full, annotated genomes of five newly isolated representative ST398 strains from five major sequence heterogeneity groups of our diverse isolate collection.