Mutation rate dynamics reflect ecological change in an emerging zoonotic pathogen.

ABSTRACT: Mutation rates vary both within and between bacterial species, and understanding what drives this variation is essential for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of bacterial populations. In this study, we investigate two factors that are predicted to influence the mutation rate: ecology and genome size. We conducted mutation accumulation experiments on eight strains of the emerging zoonotic pathogen Streptococcus suis. Natural variation within this species allows us to compare tonsil carriage and invasive disease isolates, from both more and less pathogenic populations, with a wide range of genome sizes. We find that invasive disease isolates have repeatedly evolved mutation rates that are higher than those of closely related carriage isolates, regardless of variation in genome size. I

SUBMITTER: Murray GGR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8601623 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature