Bakkeren, Erik and Gül, Ersin and Huisman, Jana S. and Steiger, Yves and Rocker, Andrea and Hardt, Wolf-Dietrich and Diard, Médéric. (2021) Cooperative virulence can emerge via horizontal gene transfer but is stabilized by transmission.
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Abstract
Intestinal inflammation fuels Salmonella Typhimurium ( S .Tm) transmission despite a fitness cost associated with the expression of virulence. Cheater mutants can emerge that profit from inflammation without enduring this cost. Intestinal virulence in S .Tm is therefore a cooperative trait, and its evolution a conundrum. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of cooperative alleles may facilitate the emergence of cooperative virulence, despite its instability. To test this hypothesis, we cloned hilD , coding for a master regulator of virulence, into a conjugative plasmid that is highly transferrable during intestinal colonization. We demonstrate that virulence can emerge by hilD transfer between avirulent strains in vivo . However, this was indeed unstable and hilD mutant cheaters arose within a few days. The timing of cheater emergence depended on the cost. We further show that stabilization of cooperative virulence in S .Tm is dependent on transmission dynamics, strengthened by population bottlenecks, leading cheaters to extinction and allowing cooperators to thrive.
Faculties and Departments: | 05 Faculty of Science > Departement Biozentrum > Infection Biology > Pathogen Evolution (Diard) |
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UniBasel Contributors: | Diard, Médéric |
Item Type: | Working Paper |
Publisher: | biorxiv.org |
Note: | Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Discussion paper / Internet publication |
Language: | English |
Identification Number: | |
edoc DOI: | |
Last Modified: | 08 Mar 2022 09:32 |
Deposited On: | 08 Mar 2022 09:32 |
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