A multihost bacterial pathogen overcomes continuous population bottlenecks to adapt to new host species
Author(s)
Bacigalupe, Rodrigo
Angeles Tormo-Mas, Maria
Penades, Jose R
Fitzgerald, J Ross
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
While many bacterial pathogens are restricted to single host species, some have the capacity to undergo host switches, leading to the emergence of new clones that are a threat to human and animal health. However, the bacterial traits that underpin a multihost ecology are not well understood. Following transmission to a new host, bacterial populations are influenced by powerful forces such as genetic drift that reduce the fixation rate of beneficial mutations, limiting the capacity for host adaptation. Here, we implement a novel experimental model of bacterial host switching to investigate the ability of the multihost pathogen Staphylococcus aureus to adapt to new species under continuous population bottlenecks. We demonstrate that beneficial mutations accumulated during infection can overcome genetic drift and sweep through the population, leading to host adaptation. Our findings highlight the remarkable capacity of some bacteria to adapt to distinct host niches in the face of powerful antagonistic population forces.
Date Issued
2019-11-01
Date Acceptance
2019-10-01
Citation
Science Advances, 2019, 5 (11)
ISSN
2375-2548
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Journal / Book Title
Science Advances
Volume
5
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000499736100030&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS REVEALS
GENOME
EVOLUTION
DYNAMICS
INSIGHTS
PROBABILITY
MUTATIONS
ORIGIN
SPREAD
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN eaax0063