Fig. 2. SNP-based phylogenetic tree with Snippy, Gubbins, and RAxML-NG analysis of the representative S. aureus strains, illustrating relationships between major clones. The Korean clinical MRSA strains are indicated by bolded rectangles. SCCmec II strains from Korea clustered closely with other representative SCCmec II strains. In contrast, SCCmec IVA strains of CC8 (HL16278 and HL18840) formed a distinct clade, separate from other SCCmec IV reference strains of CC8. A total of 112,574 SNP loci were included in the analysis.SNP: single-nucleotide polymorphism; MRSA: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; SCCmec: staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec