Capsules and their traits shape phage susceptibility and plasmid conjugation efficiency

Matthieu Haudiquet (), Julie Bris, Amandine Nucci, Rémy A. Bonnin, Pilar Domingo-Calap, Eduardo P. C. Rocha () and Olaya Rendueles ()
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Matthieu Haudiquet: Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR3525, Microbial Evolutionary Genomics
Julie Bris: Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR3525, Microbial Evolutionary Genomics
Amandine Nucci: Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR3525, Microbial Evolutionary Genomics
Rémy A. Bonnin: Team Resist UMR1184 Université Paris Saclay, CEA, Inserm, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre
Pilar Domingo-Calap: Universitat de València-CSIC
Eduardo P. C. Rocha: Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR3525, Microbial Evolutionary Genomics
Olaya Rendueles: Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR3525, Microbial Evolutionary Genomics

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Bacterial evolution is affected by mobile genetic elements like phages and conjugative plasmids, offering new adaptive traits while incurring fitness costs. Their infection is affected by the bacterial capsule. Yet, its importance has been difficult to quantify because of the high diversity of confounding mechanisms in bacterial genomes such as anti-viral systems and surface receptor modifications. Swapping capsule loci between Klebsiella pneumoniae strains allowed us to quantify their impact on plasmid and phage infection independently of genetic background. Capsule swaps systematically invert phage susceptibility, revealing serotypes as key determinants of phage infection. Capsule types also influence conjugation efficiency in both donor and recipient cells, a mechanism shaped by capsule volume and conjugative pilus structure. Comparative genomics confirmed that more permissive serotypes in the lab correspond to the strains acquiring more conjugative plasmids in nature. The least capsule-sensitive pili (F-like) are the most frequent in the species’ plasmids, and are the only ones associated with both antibiotic resistance and virulence factors, driving the convergence between virulence and antibiotics resistance in the population. These results show how traits of cellular envelopes define slow and fast lanes of infection by mobile genetic elements, with implications for population dynamics and horizontal gene transfer.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46147-5

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