The adaptive potential during nasopharyngeal colonisation of Streptococcus pneumoniae

Adaptation to host defences and antimicrobials is critical for Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) during colonisation of the nasopharynx – its only ecological habitat. The pneumococcus is highly transformable with the genome between different strains varying widely in both gene content and gene
sequence. Thus, mixed strains colonising together will expand the genetic reservoir – ‘‘supragenome’’ for this highly transformable microorganism, increasing its adaptive potential.
The extent of the phenotypic and genotypic diversity of strains co-colonising in the nasopharynx was determined. In contrast to most carriage studies, which characterise single colonies, a systematic analysis of up to 20 colonies per colonisation was undertaken in Tanzanian children for 12 months. The serotype
was determined by conventional serology and confirmed by DNA-based methods. The antibiotype for penicillin and co-trimoxazole was determined from the minimum inhibitory concentration determined by E-test. As representative of the genotype of strains the sequence types (STs) was determined by multilocus sequence typing (MLST).
Of 61 colonisation events studied, seven (11.5%) had strains expressing multiple serotypes, with a maximum of five serotypes detected. Four colonisation events also had co-colonisation of penicillin and/or cotrimoxazole susceptible and non-susceptible pneumococci. Sequence typing revealed that 58% were unique to our cohort. Simultaneous colonisation of up to six STs with two expressing serotype 6B was seen. Re-isolation of either the same or different strains of serotype 6B was seen. Genetically related single-locus and double-locus variants were identified in our cohort that differed by multiple nucleotides.
Multiple colony characterisation revealed phenotypic and genetic evidence of microevolution and a greater diversity of pneumococcal strains colonising together than previously observed, thus increasing the potential to adapt in response to the host environment during colonisation.