Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Competition plays a key role in shaping the structure and diversity of bacterial populations. In many clinically important bacterial species, strains compete at multiple scales: at the between-host scale for new hosts to colonise, and at the within-host scale during co-colonisation. Characterising t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-08-01
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| Series: | PLoS Biology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003300 |
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| author | Aswin Krishna Gerry Tonkin-Hill Thibaut Morel-Journel Stephen Bentley Paul Turner François Blanquart Sonja Lehtinen |
| author_facet | Aswin Krishna Gerry Tonkin-Hill Thibaut Morel-Journel Stephen Bentley Paul Turner François Blanquart Sonja Lehtinen |
| author_sort | Aswin Krishna |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Competition plays a key role in shaping the structure and diversity of bacterial populations. In many clinically important bacterial species, strains compete at multiple scales: at the between-host scale for new hosts to colonise, and at the within-host scale during co-colonisation. Characterising these multiple facets of competition plays an important role in understanding bacterial ecology. This is particularly relevant for antibiotic resistance, where competition between antibiotic-susceptible and resistant strains determines resistance dynamics. In this work, we perform survival analyses on a large longitudinal dataset of Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage to quantify how within-host competition affects the rates of clearance and establishment of pneumococcal strains. We find that the presence of a within-host competitor is associated with a 33% increase in clearance and a 54% reduction in establishment. Priority effects and serotype differences partially predict the outcomes of this within-host competition. Further, we quantify the effects of antibiotic resistance on between- and within-host components of fitness. Antibiotic consumption is associated with increased clearance rate for both susceptible and resistant strains, albeit to a higher extent in susceptible strains. In the absence of antibiotics, we find some evidence that resistance is associated with increased susceptibility to within-host competition, suggesting a fitness cost of resistance. Overall, our work provides quantitative insights into pneumococcal competition across scales and the role of this competition in shaping pneumococcal epidemiology. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5b651b788f2f49c8800dbe9c3b2c37f4 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1544-9173 1545-7885 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Biology |
| spelling | doaj-art-5b651b788f2f49c8800dbe9c3b2c37f42025-08-20T03:40:21ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Biology1544-91731545-78852025-08-01238e300330010.1371/journal.pbio.3003300Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae.Aswin KrishnaGerry Tonkin-HillThibaut Morel-JournelStephen BentleyPaul TurnerFrançois BlanquartSonja LehtinenCompetition plays a key role in shaping the structure and diversity of bacterial populations. In many clinically important bacterial species, strains compete at multiple scales: at the between-host scale for new hosts to colonise, and at the within-host scale during co-colonisation. Characterising these multiple facets of competition plays an important role in understanding bacterial ecology. This is particularly relevant for antibiotic resistance, where competition between antibiotic-susceptible and resistant strains determines resistance dynamics. In this work, we perform survival analyses on a large longitudinal dataset of Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage to quantify how within-host competition affects the rates of clearance and establishment of pneumococcal strains. We find that the presence of a within-host competitor is associated with a 33% increase in clearance and a 54% reduction in establishment. Priority effects and serotype differences partially predict the outcomes of this within-host competition. Further, we quantify the effects of antibiotic resistance on between- and within-host components of fitness. Antibiotic consumption is associated with increased clearance rate for both susceptible and resistant strains, albeit to a higher extent in susceptible strains. In the absence of antibiotics, we find some evidence that resistance is associated with increased susceptibility to within-host competition, suggesting a fitness cost of resistance. Overall, our work provides quantitative insights into pneumococcal competition across scales and the role of this competition in shaping pneumococcal epidemiology.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003300 |
| spellingShingle | Aswin Krishna Gerry Tonkin-Hill Thibaut Morel-Journel Stephen Bentley Paul Turner François Blanquart Sonja Lehtinen Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae. PLoS Biology |
| title | Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae. |
| title_full | Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae. |
| title_fullStr | Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae. |
| title_short | Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae. |
| title_sort | quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within host competition on strain fitness in streptococcus pneumoniae |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003300 |
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