Anatomical Site-Specific Carbohydrate Availability Impacts Streptococcus pneumoniae Virulence and Fitness during Colonization and Disease

2021/11/08 by Hansol Im, Katherine L. Kruckow, Adonis D’Mello +12 · 13 citations
Medicine · #Antibiotics #Bacterial adhesin #Biochemistry #Biology #Catabolite repression #Gene #Gene expression #Helicobacter pylori-related gastroenterology studies #Microbiology #Mutant #Pneumococcal infections #Pneumolysin #Pneumonia and Respiratory Infections #Respiratory viral infections research #Streptococcus pneumoniae #Transcriptome #Virulence #Virulence factor

paper · doi:10.1128/iai.00451-21

openalex publication_date 2021/11/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

production, and were in a carbon-catabolite repression (CCR)-derepressed state versus S. pneumoniae cells grown in CDM modeling blood (CDM-B). Using transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq), we determined the transcriptome for the S. pneumoniae wild-type (WT) strain and its isogenic CCR-deficient mutant in CDM-N and CDM-B. Genes with altered expression as a result of changes in carbohydrate availability or catabolite control protein deficiency, respectively, were primarily involved in carbohydrate metabolism, but also encoded established virulence determinants, such as polysaccharide capsule and surface adhesins. We confirmed that anatomical site-specific carbohydrate availability directly influenced established S. pneumoniae virulence traits. S. pneumoniae cells grown in CDM-B formed shorter chains, produced more capsule, were less adhesive, and were more resistant to macrophage killing in an opsonophagocytosis assay. Moreover, growth of S. pneumoniae in CDM-N or CDM-B prior to the challenge of mice impacted relative fitness in a colonization model and invasive disease model, respectively. Thus, anatomical site-specific carbohydrate availability alters S. pneumoniae physiology and virulence, in turn promoting anatomical site-specific fitness.

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