Rapid methicillin resistance diversification in Staphylococcus epidermidis colonizing human neonates.

ABSTRACT: Early in life, infants are colonized with multiple bacterial strains whose differences in gene content can have important health consequences. Metagenomics-based approaches have revealed gene content differences between different strains co-colonizing newborns, but less is known about the rate, mechanism, and phenotypic consequences of gene content diversification within strains. Here, focusing on Staphylococcus epidermidis, we whole-genome sequence and phenotype more than 600 isolates from newborns. Within days of birth, infants are co-colonized with a highly personalized repertoire of S. epidermidis strains, which are spread across the newborn body. Comparing the genomes of multiple isolates of each strain, we find very little evidence of adaptive evolution via single-nucleotide polymorp

SUBMITTER: Datta MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8523572 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature