Horizontal gene transfer rate is not the primary determinant of observed antibiotic resistance frequencies in Streptococcus pneumoniae
Abstract
. We analyze microbiological, genomic, and epidemiological data from the largest-to-date sequenced pneumococcal carriage study in 955 infants from a refugee camp on the Thailand-Myanmar border. Using a unified framework, we simultaneously test prior hypotheses on rates of HGT and a key evolutionary covariate (duration of carriage) as determinants of resistance frequencies. We conclude that in this setting, there is little evidence of HGT playing a major role in determining resistance frequencies. Instead, observed resistance frequencies are best explained as the outcome of selection acting on a pool of variants, irrespective of the rate at which resistance determinants move between genetic lineages.
Authors: Sonja Lehtinen, Claire Chewapreecha, John A. Lees, William Paul Hanage, Marc Lipsitch, Nicholas J. Croucher, Stephen D. Bentley, Paul Turner, Christophe Fraser, Rafal J. Mostowy
Published in: Science Advances (2020)