Within-host microevolution of Streptococcus pneumoniae is rapid and adaptive during natural colonisation.

ABSTRACT: Genomic evolution, transmission and pathogenesis of Streptococcus pneumoniae, an opportunistic human-adapted pathogen, is driven principally by nasopharyngeal carriage. However, little is known about genomic changes during natural colonisation. Here, we use whole-genome sequencing to investigate within-host microevolution of naturally carried pneumococci in ninety-eight infants intensively sampled sequentially from birth until twelve months in a high-carriage African setting. We show that neutral evolution and nucleotide substitution rates up to forty-fold faster than observed over longer timescales in S. pneumoniae and other bacteria drives high within-host pneumococcal genetic diversity. Highly divergent co-existing strain variants emerge during colonisation episodes through real-time in

SUBMITTER: Chaguza C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7351774 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature