The high numbers of SCCmec-associated elements in the primary GWAS (Supplementary Data 3) and among the 61 genes containing phenotypically correlated hits (including ccrB, mecR1, mecA, maoC, arc, arcB-2 and other genes encoding hypothetical proteins, Supplementary Data 1) indicates the importance of relative abundance of SCCmec in infection strains, compared with those from the commensal environment. Here, RNLS is linked to infection.