Deep_sequencing_of_the_Maela_carriage_cohort_to_study_within_host_evolution__pathogenesis_and_transmission_epidemiology_of_Streptococcus_pneumoniae

This project is intended to generate detailed information on multiple aspects of the within-host evolution and epidemiology of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Currently, we have a good understanding of the genetic variation of S. pneumoniae populations, and how lineages diversify over decades. However, we lack fundamentally important information on the precise mechanisms by which this variation accumulates within individual cell populations, and how it is constrained by bottlenecks caused by transmission, strain competition and antibiotic treatment. At least one publication has shown extensive transmission of sequence within ‘quasisexual’ bacterial populations is an important process in diversification and adaptation of bacteria, and we hypothesise there should be additional ongoing conflict between transmission of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and transformation in analogous S. pneumoniae populations. These pilot studies on samples from the Maela camp should provide an increased level of resolution on some cases of interest.