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

Marc Prudhomme, Calum H. G. Johnston, Anne-Lise Soulet, Anne Boyeldieu, David Lemos, Nathalie Campo and Patrice Polard ()
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Marc Prudhomme: Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Calum H. G. Johnston: Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Anne-Lise Soulet: Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Anne Boyeldieu: Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
David Lemos: Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Nathalie Campo: Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Patrice Polard: Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

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

Abstract: Abstract 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.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49853-2

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