Fitter Strain Research Articles

What triggers virulent, fitter strains of HIV-1?

What triggers virulent, fitter strains of HIV-1?

Loss of apyoverdine secondary receptor in Pseudomonas aeruginosa results in a fitter strain suitable for population invasion.

The rapid emergence of antibiotic resistant bacterial pathogens constitutes a critical problem in healthcare and requires the development of novel treatments. Potential strategies include the exploitation of microbial social interactions based on public goods, which are produced at a fitness cost by cooperative microorganisms, but can be exploited by cheaters that do not produce these goods. Cheater invasion has been proposed as a 'Trojan horse' approach to infiltrate pathogen populations with strains deploying built-in weaknesses (e.g., sensitiveness to antibiotics). However, previous attempts have been often unsuccessful because population invasion by cheaters was prevented by various mechanisms including the presence of spatial structure (e.g., growth in biofilms), which limits the diffusion and exploitation of public goods. Here we followed an alternative approach and examined whether the manipulation of public good uptake and not its production could result in potential 'Trojan horses' suitable for population invasion. We focused on the siderophore pyoverdine produced by the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa MPAO1 and manipulated its uptake by deleting and/or overexpressing the pyoverdine primary (FpvA) and secondary (FpvB) receptors. We found that receptor synthesis feeds back on pyoverdine production and uptake rates, which led to strains with altered pyoverdine-associated costs and benefits. Moreover, we found that the receptor FpvB was advantageous under iron-limited conditions but revealed hidden costs in the presence of an antibiotic stressor (gentamicin). As a consequence, FpvB mutants became the fittest strain under gentamicin exposure, displacing the wildtype in liquid cultures, and in biofilms and during infections of the wax moth larvae Galleria mellonella, which both represent structured environments. Our findings reveal that an evolutionary trade-off associated with the costs and benefits of a versatile pyoverdine uptake strategy can be harnessed for devising a Trojan-horse candidate for medical interventions.

Evolthon: A community endeavor to evolve lab evolution.

In experimental evolution, scientists evolve organisms in the lab, typically by challenging them to new environmental conditions. How best to evolve a desired trait? Should the challenge be applied abruptly, gradually, periodically, sporadically? Should one apply chemical mutagenesis, and do strains with high innate mutation rate evolve faster? What are ideal population sizes of evolving populations? There are endless strategies, beyond those that can be exposed by individual labs. We therefore arranged a community challenge, Evolthon, in which students and scientists from different labs were asked to evolve Escherichia coli or Saccharomyces cerevisiae for an abiotic stress—low temperature. About 30 participants from around the world explored diverse environmental and genetic regimes of evolution. After a period of evolution in each lab, all strains of each species were competed with one another. In yeast, the most successful strategies were those that used mating, underscoring the importance of sex in evolution. In bacteria, the fittest strain used a strategy based on exploration of different mutation rates. Different strategies displayed variable levels of performance and stability across additional challenges and conditions. This study therefore uncovers principles of effective experimental evolutionary regimens and might prove useful also for biotechnological developments of new strains and for understanding natural strategies in evolutionary arms races between species. Evolthon constitutes a model for community-based scientific exploration that encourages creativity and cooperation.

Frequency-dependent assistance as a way out of competitive exclusion between two strains of an emerging virus

Biological invasions are the main causes of emerging viral diseases and they favour the co-occurrence of multiple species or strains in the same environment. Depending on the nature of the interaction, co-occurrence can lead to competitive exclusion or coexistence. The successive fortuitous introductions of two strains of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV-Mld and TYLCV-IL) in Réunion Island provided an ideal opportunity to study the invasion of, and competition between, these worldwide emerging pathogens. During a 7-year field survey, we observed a displacement of the resident TYLCV-Mld by the newcomer TYLCV-IL, with TYLCV-Mld remaining mostly in co-infected plants. To understand the factors associated with this partial displacement, biological traits related to fitness were measured. The better ecological aptitude of TYLCV-IL in single infections was demonstrated, which explains its rapid spread. However, we demonstrate that the relative fitness of virus strains can drastically change between single infections and co-infections. An epidemiological model parametrized with our experimental data predicts that the two strains will coexist in the long run through assistance by the fitter strain. This rare case of unilateral facilitation between two pathogens leads to frequency-dependent selection and maintenance of the less fit strain.

Repeated triggering of sporulation in Bacillus subtilis selects against a protein that affects the timing of cell division

Bacillus subtilis sporulation is a last-resort phenotypical adaptation in response to starvation. The regulatory network underlying this developmental pathway has been studied extensively. However, how sporulation initiation is concerted in relation to the environmental nutrient availability is poorly understood. In a fed-batch fermentation set-up, in which sporulation of ultraviolet (UV)-mutagenized B. subtilis is repeatedly triggered by periods of starvation, fitter strains with mutated tagE evolved. These mutants display altered timing of phenotypical differentiation. The substrate for the wall teichoic acid (WTA)-modifying enzyme TagE, UDP-glucose, has recently been shown to be an intracellular proxy for nutrient availability, and influences the timing of cell division. Here we suggest that UDP-glucose also influences timing of cellular differentiation.

Continued Circulation of G12P[6] Rotaviruses Over 28 Months in Nepal: Successive Replacement of Predominant Strains

Rotavirus A causes severe diarrhoea in infants and young children worldwide. The migration pattern (electropherotype) of the double-stranded RNA genome upon polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis has been used to define “strains” in molecular epidemiology. In temperate countries, distinct electropherotypes (strains) appear after the annual, off-seasonal interruption of rotavirus circulation. In Nepal, rotavirus circulated year-round and an uncommon genotype G12P[6] predominated and persisted, providing a unique opportunity to examine whether the same electropherotype (the same strain) persisted or new electropherotypes (new strains) emerged successively under the same G12P[6] predominance. A total of 147 G12P[6] rotaviruses, collected from diarrhoeal children in Nepal between 2007 and 2010, were classified into 15 distinct electropherotypes (strains). Of these, three electropherotypes (strains), LP1, LP24, and LP27, accounted for 10%, 32% and 38% of the G12P[6] rotaviruses, respectively. Each of the three major strains successively appeared, dominated, and disappeared. This study provided new evidence for the hypothesis that rotavirus constantly changes its strains to predominate in the local population even under conditions where a single genotype predominates and persists. Such dynamic strain replacement, the constant takeover of one predominant strain by another, fitter strain, is probably gives a competitive edge to the survival of rotavirus in nature.