Bacterial biodiversity drives the evolution of CRISPR-based phage resistance

Ellinor O. Alseth (), Elizabeth Pursey, Adela M. Luján, Isobel McLeod, Clare Rollie and Edze R. Westra ()
Additional contact information
Ellinor O. Alseth: University of Exeter, Penryn Campus
Elizabeth Pursey: University of Exeter, Penryn Campus
Adela M. Luján: IRNASUS, CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Católica de Córdoba
Isobel McLeod: University of Exeter, Penryn Campus
Clare Rollie: University of Exeter, Penryn Campus
Edze R. Westra: University of Exeter, Penryn Campus

Nature, 2019, vol. 574, issue 7779, 549-552

Abstract: Abstract About half of all bacteria carry genes for CRISPR–Cas adaptive immune systems1, which provide immunological memory by inserting short DNA sequences from phage and other parasitic DNA elements into CRISPR loci on the host genome2. Whereas CRISPR loci evolve rapidly in natural environments3,4, bacterial species typically evolve phage resistance by the mutation or loss of phage receptors under laboratory conditions5,6. Here we report how this discrepancy may in part be explained by differences in the biotic complexity of in vitro and natural environments7,8. Specifically, by using the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa and its phage DMS3vir, we show that coexistence with other human pathogens amplifies the fitness trade-offs associated with the mutation of phage receptors, and therefore tips the balance in favour of the evolution of CRISPR-based resistance. We also demonstrate that this has important knock-on effects for the virulence of P. aeruginosa, which became attenuated only if the bacteria evolved surface-based resistance. Our data reveal that the biotic complexity of microbial communities in natural environments is an important driver of the evolution of CRISPR–Cas adaptive immunity, with key implications for bacterial fitness and virulence.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1662-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:574:y:2019:i:7779:d:10.1038_s41586-019-1662-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1662-9

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().