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American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, 6016(331), p. 430-434, 2011

DOI: 10.1126/science.1198545

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Rapid pneumococcal evolution in response to clinical interventions

Journal article published in 2011 by Nicholas J. Croucher ORCID, Simon R. Harris, Christophe Fraser, Michael A. Quail, John Burton, Mark van der Linden, Lesley McGee, Anne von Gottberg ORCID, Jae Hoon Song, Kwan Soo Ko ORCID, Bruno Pichon, Stephen Baker, Christopher M. Parry, Lotte M. Lambertsen, Dea Shahinas and other authors.
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

Epidemiological studies of the naturally transformable bacterial pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae have previously been confounded by high rates of recombination. Sequencing 240 isolates of the PMEN1 (Spain23F-1) multidrug-resistant lineage enabled base substitutions to be distinguished from polymorphisms arising through horizontal sequence transfer. Over 700 recombinations were detected, with genes encoding major antigens frequently affected. Among these were ten capsule switching events, one of which accompanied a population shift as vaccine-escape serotype 19A isolates emerged in the USA following the introduction of the conjugate polysaccharide vaccine. The evolution of resistance to fluoroquinolones, rifampicin and macrolides was observed to occur on multiple occasions. This study details how genomic plasticity within lineages of recombinogenic bacteria can permit adaptation to clinical interventions over remarkably short timescales.