Detection of Streptococcus pyogenes M1UK in Australia and characterization of the mutation driving enhanced expression of superantigen SpeA

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Davies, Mark R
Keller, Nadia
Brouwer, Stephan
Jespersen, Magnus G
Cork, Amanda J
Hayes, Andrew J
Pitt, Miranda E
De Oliveira, David MP
Harbison-Price, Nichaela
Bertolla, Olivia M
Mediati, Daniel G
Curren, Bodie F
Taiaroa, George
Lacey, Jake A
Grimwood, Keith
et al.
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2023
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Abstract

A new variant of Streptococcus pyogenes serotype M1 (designated ‘M1UK’) has been reported in the United Kingdom, linked with seasonal scarlet fever surges, marked increase in invasive infections, and exhibiting enhanced expression of the superantigen SpeA. The progenitor S. pyogenes ‘M1global’ and M1UK clones can be differentiated by 27 SNPs and 4 indels, yet the mechanism for speA upregulation is unknown. Here we investigate the previously unappreciated expansion of M1UK in Australia, now isolated from the majority of serious infections caused by serotype M1 S. pyogenes. M1UK sub-lineages circulating in Australia also contain a novel toxin repertoire associated with epidemic scarlet fever causing S. pyogenes in Asia. A single SNP in the 5’ transcriptional leader sequence of the transfer-messenger RNA gene ssrA drives enhanced SpeA superantigen expression as a result of ssrA terminator read-through in the M1UK lineage. This represents a previously unappreciated mechanism of toxin expression and urges enhanced international surveillance.

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Nature Communications

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14

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© The Author(s) 2023. 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 license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license 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 license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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Medical bacteriology

Biomedical and clinical sciences

Science & Technology

Multidisciplinary Sciences

Science & Technology - Other Topics

SMALL STABLE RNA

HORIZONTAL GENE-TRANSFER

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Davies, MR; Keller, N; Brouwer, S; Jespersen, MG; Cork, AJ; Hayes, AJ; Pitt, ME; De Oliveira, DMP; Harbison-Price, N; Bertolla, OM; Mediati, DG; Curren, BF; Taiaroa, G; Lacey, JA; Grimwood, K; et al., Detection of Streptococcus pyogenes M1UK in Australia and characterization of the mutation driving enhanced expression of superantigen SpeA, Nature Communications, 2023, 14, pp. 1051

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