Pneumococcal competence is a populational health sensor driving multilevel heterogeneity in response to antibiotics - LMGM
Article Dans Une Revue Nature Communications Année : 2024

Pneumococcal competence is a populational health sensor driving multilevel heterogeneity in response to antibiotics

Résumé

Competence for natural transformation is a central driver of genetic diversity in bacteria. In the human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae , competence exhibits a populational character mediated by the stress-induced ComABCDE quorum-sensing (QS) system. Here, we explore how this cell-to-cell communication mechanism proceeds and the functional properties acquired by competent cells grown under lethal stress. We show that populational competence development depends on self-induced cells stochastically emerging in response to stresses, including antibiotics. Competence then propagates through the population from a low threshold density of self-induced cells, defining a biphasic Self-Induction and Propagation (SI&P) QS mechanism. We also reveal that a competent population displays either increased sensitivity or improved tolerance to lethal doses of antibiotics, dependent in the latter case on the competence-induced ComM division inhibitor. Remarkably, these surviving competent cells also display an altered transformation potential. Thus, the unveiled SI&P QS mechanism shapes pneumococcal competence as a health sensor of the clonal population, promoting a bet-hedging strategy that both responds to and drives cells towards heterogeneity.
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hal-04730683 , version 1 (10-10-2024)

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Marc Prudhomme, Calum H G Johnston, Anne-Lise Soulet, Anne Boyeldieu, David de Lemos, et al.. Pneumococcal competence is a populational health sensor driving multilevel heterogeneity in response to antibiotics. Nature Communications, 2024, 15 (1), pp.5625. ⟨10.1038/s41467-024-49853-2⟩. ⟨hal-04730683⟩
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