Enhanced virulence and stress tolerance are signatures of epidemiologically successful Shigella sonnei
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Shigellosis is a leading cause of diarrhoeal deaths, with Shigella sonnei increasingly implicated as a dominant agent. S. sonnei is divided into five monophyletic lineages, yet most infections are caused by a few clonal sub-lineages within Lineage 3 that are quite distinct from the widely used Lineage 2 laboratory strain 53G. Factors underlying the success of these globally dominant lineages remain unclear in part due to a lack of complete genome sequences and animal models. Here, we utilise a novel reference collection of representative Lineage 1, 2 and 3 isolates and find that epidemiologically successful S. sonnei harbour fewer genes encoding putative immunogenic components whilst key virulence-associated regions (including the type three secretion system and O-antigen) remain highly conserved. Using a zebrafish infection model, Lineage 3 isolates proved most virulent, driven by increased dissemination and a greater neutrophil response. These isolates also show increased resistance to complement-mediated killing alongside upregulated expression of group four capsule synthesis genes. Consistently, primary human neutrophil infections revealed an increased tolerance to phagosomal killing. Together, our findings link the epidemiological success of S. sonnei to heightened virulence and stress tolerance, and highlight zebrafish as a valuable platform to illuminate factors underlying establishment of epidemiological success.
Date Issued
2025-10-09
Date Acceptance
2025-09-04
Citation
Nature Communications, 2025, 16
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
16
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/41068110
PII: 10.1038/s41467-025-64057-y
Subjects
ESCHERICHIA-COLI
EVOLUTION
GENOME
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
9005
Date Publish Online
2025-10-09