Inter-species gene flow drives ongoing evolution of Streptococcus pyogenes and Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis
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Morris, JM
Hayes, AJ
Towers, RJ
Jespersen, MG
Lees, JA
Ben Zakour, NL
Berking, O
Baines, SL
Carter, GP
Tonkin-Hill, G
Schrieber, L
McIntyre, L
Lacey, JA
James, TB
et al.
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Abstract
Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis (SDSE) is an emerging cause of human infection with invasive disease incidence and clinical manifestations comparable to the closely related species, Streptococcus pyogenes. Through systematic genomic analyses of 501 disseminated SDSE strains, we demonstrate extensive overlap between the genomes of SDSE and S. pyogenes. More than 75% of core genes are shared between the two species with one third demonstrating evidence of cross-species recombination. Twenty-five percent of mobile genetic element (MGE) clusters and 16 of 55 SDSE MGE insertion regions were shared across species. Assessing potential cross-protection from leading S. pyogenes vaccine candidates on SDSE, 12/34 preclinical vaccine antigen genes were shown to be present in >99% of isolates of both species. Relevant to possible vaccine evasion, six vaccine candidate genes demonstrated evidence of inter-species recombination. These findings demonstrate previously unappreciated levels of genomic overlap between these closely related pathogens with implications for streptococcal pathobiology, disease surveillance and prevention.
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Nature Communications
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15
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© The Author(s) 2024. 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/.
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Xie, O; Morris, JM; Hayes, AJ; Towers, RJ; Jespersen, MG; Lees, JA; Ben Zakour, NL; Berking, O; Baines, SL; Carter, GP; Tonkin-Hill, G; Schrieber, L; McIntyre, L; Lacey, JA; James, TB; et al., Inter-species gene flow drives ongoing evolution of Streptococcus pyogenes and Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis, Nature Communications, 2024, 15 (1), pp. 2286