Selective and genetic constraints on pneumococcal serotype switching

Community-acquired bacterial meningitis

Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges and subarachnoid space that can also involve the brain cortex and parenchyma. It can be acquired spontaneously in the community - community-acquired bacterial meningitis - or in the hospital as a complication of invasive procedures or head trauma (nosocomial bacterial meningitis). Despite advances in treatment and vaccinations, community-acquired bacterial meningitis remains one of the most important infectious diseases worldwide. Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis are the most common causative bacteria and are associated with high mortality and morbidity; vaccines targeting these organisms, which have designs similar to the successful vaccine that targets Haemophilus influenzae type b meningitis, are now being used in many routine vaccination programmes. Experimental and genetic association studies have increased our knowledge about the pathogenesis of bacterial meningitis. Early antibiotic treatment improves the outcome, but the growing emergence of drug resistance as well as shifts in the distribution of serotypes and groups are fuelling further development of new vaccines and treatment strategies. Corticosteroids were found to be beneficial in high-income countries depending on the bacterial species. Further improvements in the outcome are likely to come from dampening the host inflammatory response and implementing preventive measures, especially the development of new vaccines.

Recombination in Streptococcus pneumoniae Lineages Increase with Carriage Duration and Size of the Polysaccharide Capsule

Streptococcus pneumoniae causes a high burden of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) globally, especially in children from resource-poor settings. Like many bacteria, the pneumococcus can import DNA from other strains or even species by transformation and homologous recombination, which has allowed the pneumococcus to evade clinical interventions such as antibiotics and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs). Pneumococci are enclosed in a complex polysaccharide capsule that determines the serotype; the capsule varies in size and is associated with properties including carriage prevalence and virulence. We determined and quantified the association between capsule and recombination events using genomic data from a diverse collection of serotypes sampled in Malawi. We determined both the amount of variation introduced by recombination relative to mutation (the relative rate) and how many individual recombination events occur per isolate (the frequency). Using univariate analyses, we found an association between both recombination measures and multiple factors associated with the capsule, including duration and prevalence of carriage. Because many capsular factors are correlated, we used multivariate analysis to correct for collinearity. Capsule size and carriage duration remained positively associated with recombination, although with a reduced P value, and this effect may be mediated through some unassayed additional property associated with larger capsules. This work describes an important impact of serotype on recombination that has been previously overlooked. While the details of how this effect is achieved remain to be determined, it may have important consequences for the serotype-specific response to vaccines and other interventions.

IMPORTANCE

The capsule determines >90 different pneumococcal serotypes, which vary in capsule size, virulence, duration, and prevalence of carriage. Current serotype-specific vaccines elicit anticapsule antibodies. Pneumococcus can take up exogenous DNA by transformation and insert it into its chromosome by homologous recombination. This mechanism has disseminated drug resistance and generated vaccine escape variants. It is hence crucial to pneumococcal evolutionary response to interventions, but there has been no systematic study quantifying whether serotypes vary in recombination and whether this is associated with serotype-specific properties such as capsule size or carriage duration. Larger capsules could physically inhibit DNA uptake, or given the longer carriage duration for larger capsules, this may promote recombination. We find that recombination varies among capsules and is associated with capsule size, carriage duration, and carriage prevalence and negatively associated with invasiveness. The consequence of this work is that serotypes with different capsules may respond differently to selective pressures like vaccines.

Metabolic competition as a driver of bacterial population structure

Understanding the processes whereby diversity arises and is maintained in pathogen populations is pivotal for designing disease control interventions. A particular problem is the maintenance of strain structure in bacterial pathogen populations despite frequent genetic exchange. Although several theoretical frameworks have been put forward to explain this widespread phenomenon, few have focused on the role of genes encoding metabolic functions, despite an increasing recognition of their importance in pathogenesis and transmission. In this article, we review the literature for evidence of metabolic niches within the host and discuss theoretical frameworks which examine ecological interactions between metabolic genes. We contend that metabolic competition is an important phenomenon which contributes to the maintenance of population structure and diversity of many bacterial pathogens.

A Primer on Infectious Disease Bacterial Genomics

The number of large-scale genomics projects is increasing due to the availability of affordable high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies. The use of HTS for bacterial infectious disease research is attractive because one whole-genome sequencing (WGS) run can replace multiple assays for bacterial typing, molecular epidemiology investigations, and more in-depth pathogenomic studies. The computational resources and bioinformatics expertise required to accommodate and analyze the large amounts of data pose new challenges for researchers embarking on genomics projects for the first time. Here, we present a comprehensive overview of a bacterial genomics projects from beginning to end, with a particular focus on the planning and computational requirements for HTS data, and provide a general understanding of the analytical concepts to develop a workflow that will meet the objectives and goals of HTS projects.

Not So Simple After All: Bacteria, Their Population Genetics, and Recombination

The pervasive nature of bacterial recombination has become clear. Despite this, the population genetics of bacteria persist in being viewed as simple. Here, I argue against that characterization. After summarizing the history of the topic, I survey the evidence for remarkable and unexplained variation in recombination rate among and within bacterial species. I finally argue that despite recent assertions that recombination means bacterial genes are "public goods," in bacteria the level of selection is the gene, and genes can be understood to have niches with dimensions including the other contents of the genome in which they find themselves.

Addiction of Hypertransformable Pneumococcal Isolates to Natural Transformation for In Vivo Fitness and Virulence

Natural genetic transformation of Streptococcus pneumoniae, an important human pathogen, mediates horizontal gene transfer for the development of drug resistance, modulation of carriage and virulence traits, and evasion of host immunity. Transformation frequency differs greatly among pneumococcal clinical isolates, but the molecular basis and biological importance of this interstrain variability remain unclear. In this study, we characterized the transformation frequency and other associated phenotypes of 208 S. pneumoniae clinical isolates representing at least 30 serotypes. While the vast majority of these isolates (94.7%) were transformable, the transformation frequency differed by up to 5 orders of magnitude between the least and most transformable isolates. The strain-to-strain differences in transformation frequency were observed among many isolates producing the same capsule types, indicating no general association between transformation frequency and serotype. However, a statistically significant association was observed between the levels of transformation and colonization fitness/virulence in the hypertransformable isolates. Although nontransformable mutants of all the selected hypertransformable isolates were significantly attenuated in colonization fitness and virulence in mouse infection models, such mutants of the strains with relatively low transformability had no or marginal fitness phenotypes under the same experimental settings. This finding strongly suggests that the pneumococci with high transformation capability are "addicted" to a "hypertransformable" state for optimal fitness in the human host. This work has thus provided an intriguing hint for further investigation into how the competence system impacts the fitness, virulence, and other transformation-associated traits of this important human pathogen.

Horizontal DNA Transfer Mechanisms of Bacteria as Weapons of Intragenomic Conflict

Horizontal DNA transfer (HDT) is a pervasive mechanism of diversification in many microbial species, but its primary evolutionary role remains controversial. Much recent research has emphasised the adaptive benefit of acquiring novel DNA, but here we argue instead that intragenomic conflict provides a coherent framework for understanding the evolutionary origins of HDT. To test this hypothesis, we developed a mathematical model of a clonally descended bacterial population undergoing HDT through transmission of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and genetic transformation. Including the known bias of transformation toward the acquisition of shorter alleles into the model suggested it could be an effective means of counteracting the spread of MGEs. Both constitutive and transient competence for transformation were found to provide an effective defence against parasitic MGEs; transient competence could also be effective at permitting the selective spread of MGEs conferring a benefit on their host bacterium. The coordination of transient competence with cell-cell killing, observed in multiple species, was found to result in synergistic blocking of MGE transmission through releasing genomic DNA for homologous recombination while simultaneously reducing horizontal MGE spread by lowering the local cell density. To evaluate the feasibility of the functions suggested by the modelling analysis, we analysed genomic data from longitudinal sampling of individuals carrying Streptococcus pneumoniae. This revealed the frequent within-host coexistence of clonally descended cells that differed in their MGE infection status, a necessary condition for the proposed mechanism to operate. Additionally, we found multiple examples of MGEs inhibiting transformation through integrative disruption of genes encoding the competence machinery across many species, providing evidence of an ongoing "arms race." Reduced rates of transformation have also been observed in cells infected by MGEs that reduce the concentration of extracellular DNA through secretion of DNases. Simulations predicted that either mechanism of limiting transformation would benefit individual MGEs, but also that this tactic's effectiveness was limited by competition with other MGEs coinfecting the same cell. A further observed behaviour we hypothesised to reduce elimination by transformation was MGE activation when cells become competent. Our model predicted that this response was effective at counteracting transformation independently of competing MGEs. Therefore, this framework is able to explain both common properties of MGEs, and the seemingly paradoxical bacterial behaviours of transformation and cell-cell killing within clonally related populations, as the consequences of intragenomic conflict between self-replicating chromosomes and parasitic MGEs. The antagonistic nature of the different mechanisms of HDT over short timescales means their contribution to bacterial evolution is likely to be substantially greater than previously appreciated.

Coordinated Bacteriocin Expression and Competence in Streptococcus pneumoniae Contributes to Genetic Adaptation through Neighbor Predation

Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) has remained a persistent cause of invasive and mucosal disease in humans despite the widespread use of antibiotics and vaccines. The resilience of this organism is due to its capacity for adaptation through the uptake and incorporation of new genetic material from the surrounding microbial community. DNA uptake and recombination is controlled by a tightly regulated quorum sensing system that is triggered by the extracellular accumulation of competence stimulating peptide (CSP). In this study, we demonstrate that CSP can stimulate the production of a diverse array of blp bacteriocins. This cross stimulation occurs through increased production and secretion of the bacteriocin pheromone, BlpC, and requires a functional competence regulatory system. We show that a highly conserved motif in the promoter of the operon encoding BlpC and its transporter mediates the upregulation by CSP. The accumulation of BlpC following CSP stimulation results in augmented activation of the entire blp locus. Using biofilm-grown organisms as a model for competition and genetic exchange on the mucosal surface, we demonstrate that DNA exchange is enhanced by bacteriocin secretion suggesting that co-stimulation of bacteriocins with competence provides an adaptive advantage. The blp and com regulatory pathways are believed to have diverged and specialized in a remote ancestor of pneumococcus. Despite this, the two systems have maintained a regulatory connection that promotes competition and adaptation by targeting for lysis a wide array of potential competitors while simultaneously providing the means for incorporation of their DNA.

Effect on nasopharyngeal pneumococcal carriage of replacing PCV7 with PCV13 in the Expanded Programme of Immunization in The Gambia

INTRODUCTION

In 2011, two years after the introduction of 7-valent Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7), the Gambian immunization programme replaced PVC7 with PCV13 (13-valent). Our objective was to assess the additional impact of PCV13 on prevalence of pneumococcal nasopharyngeal carriage.

METHODS

We recruited healthy Gambian infants who had received three PCV doses. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from infants and their mothers during two cross-sectional surveys (CSS) conducted in infants vaccinated with PCV7 (CSS1) and vaccinated with PCV13 (CSS2). Pneumococci were isolated and serotyped following standardized methods. Whole genome sequencing was performed on non-typable pneumococcus isolated in CSS1 and CSS2.

RESULTS

339 and 350 infants and their mothers were recruited in CSS1 and CSS2, respectively. Overall prevalence of pneumococcal carriage was 85.4% in infants. Among infants, prevalence of vaccine type (VT) carriage was lower in CSS2 [9.4% versus 4.9% (p=0.025) for PCV7-VT; 33.3% versus 18.3% (p<0.001) for PCV13-VT and 23.9% versus 13.7% (p=0.001) for the 6 additional serotypes included in PCV13]. At CSS2, there was a decrease of serotypes 6A (from 15.3% to 5.7%, p<0.001) and 19F (from 5.6% to 1.7%, p=0.007), and an increase of non-typable pneumococci (0.3-6.0%, p<0.001), most of which (82.4%) were from typable serotype backgrounds that had lost the ability to express a capsule. Prevalence of overall and VT carriage in mothers was similar in CSS1 and CSS2.

CONCLUSIONS

Replacing PCV7 for PCV13 rapidly decreased prevalence of VT carriage among vaccinated Gambian infants. An indirect effect in mothers was not observed yet. Vaccine-driven selection pressure may have been responsible for the increase of non-typable isolates.

Recombination-mediated remodelling of host-pathogen interactions during Staphylococcus aureus niche adaptation

Large-scale recombination events have led to the emergence of epidemic clones of several major bacterial pathogens. However, the functional impact of the recombination on clonal success is not understood. Here, we identified a novel widespread hybrid clone (ST71) of livestock-associated Staphylococcus aureus that evolved from an ancestor belonging to the major bovine lineage CC97, through multiple large-scale recombination events with other S. aureus lineages occupying the same ruminant niche. The recombination events, affecting a 329 kb region of the chromosome spanning the origin of replication, resulted in allele replacement and loss or gain of an array of genes influencing host–pathogen interactions. Of note, molecular functional analyses revealed that the ST71 hybrid clone has acquired multiple novel pathogenic traits associated with acquired and innate immune evasion and bovine extracellular matrix adherence. These findings provide a paradigm for the impact of large-scale recombination events on the rapid evolution of bacterial pathogens within defined ecological niches.

Population genomic datasets describing the post-vaccine evolutionary epidemiology of Streptococcus pneumoniae

Streptococcus pneumoniae is common nasopharyngeal commensal bacterium and important human pathogen. Vaccines against a subset of pneumococcal antigenic diversity have reduced rates of disease, without changing the frequency of asymptomatic carriage, through altering the bacterial population structure. These changes can be studied in detail through using genome sequencing to characterise systematically-sampled collections of carried S. pneumoniae. This dataset consists of 616 annotated draft genomes of isolates collected from children during routine visits to primary care physicians in Massachusetts between 2001, shortly after the seven valent polysaccharide conjugate vaccine was introduced, and 2007. Also made available are a core genome alignment and phylogeny describing the overall population structure, clusters of orthologous protein sequences, software for inferring serotype from Illumina reads, and whole genome alignments for the analysis of closely-related sets of pneumococci. These data can be used to study both bacterial evolution and the epidemiology of a pathogen population under selection from vaccine-induced immunity.

Vaccination Drives Changes in Metabolic and Virulence Profiles of Streptococcus pneumoniae

The bacterial pathogen, Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus), is a leading cause of life-threatening illness and death worldwide. Available conjugate vaccines target only a small subset (up to 13) of >90 known capsular serotypes of S. pneumoniae and, since their introduction, increases in non-vaccine serotypes have been recorded in several countries: a phenomenon termed Vaccine Induced Serotype Replacement (VISR). Here, using a combination of mathematical modelling and whole genome analysis, we show that targeting particular serotypes through vaccination can also cause their metabolic and virulence-associated components to transfer through recombination to non-vaccine serotypes: a phenomenon we term Vaccine-Induced Metabolic Shift (VIMS). Our results provide a novel explanation for changes observed in the population structure of the pneumococcus following vaccination, and have important implications for strain-targeted vaccination in a range of infectious disease systems.