Biofilm formation usually increases antimicrobial resistance capacity of Staphylococcus aureus, which poses considerable challenges to successful eradication of staphylococcal infections. Very little is known about the biofilm-forming capacity and antibiotic resistance pattern of dominant S. aureus clonal lineages in China. In this study, the disk diffusion method and the microtiter plate assay were, respectively, performed to determine the antibiotic resistance and biofilm-forming capacity of 84 different S. aureus isolates belonging to 10 dominant clonal lineages in China. It was shown that isolates of different clonal lineages had obvious variations in biofilm-forming capacity. Resistance to individual antibacterial agents was most frequently observed to erythromycin (72.6%) and azithromycin (72.6%). Then, all tested isolates were further screened for the presence of 16 resistance genes by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and no significant correlation was found between clonal lineage and the distribution of resistance genes. Overall, our results indicate that biofilm producers of S. aureus have a greater likelihood to carry more antibiotic resistance genes than non-biofilm producers (p<.01), further implying that biofilm may promote the dissemination of antibiotic resistance determinants. Practical applicationsStaphylococcus aureus is the leading cause of nosocomial infections and often associated with food poisoning worldwide. Biofilm formation of S. aureus influences the efficacy of antimicrobial therapy and promotes the persistence of infections; however, the knowledge about biofilm formation capacity of isolates belonging to different clonal lineages is little. Therefore, this study on biofilm formation capacity and antibiotic resistance pattern of dominant S. aureus clonal lineages could help to fix this information gap.