Fig. 2

Distribution of different emm types among age groups. Patient samples were categorized in four age-groups as mentioned in Methods. Genomic DNA was prepared using the phenol-chloroform method. emm gene was then amplified by “all M” primers and further sequenced with “all M” forward primer. The sequence obtained was then subjected to homology search by Blast search analysis (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/biotech/strep/ strepblast.htm). Distribution of different emm types among age groups was expressed in percentages as described in Methods. emm types of group A streptococci isolated from different age groups revealed that infants (1 month–3 years) are frequently infected by emm49 (75%), school-going children (group II) are primarily affected by emm25 (18.7%) and emm92 (14.5%). A few emm strains were detected in adults (group III, 15.6% of emm77) and middle or old aged patients (group IV 16.6% of emm9, emm25 and emm11 each). Asterisks indicate a statistically significant correlations (^****P < 0.0001, ^***P = 0.0004 and ^**P = 0.001, 0.008)