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SUMMARY:Contributed Talk 3: The role of metabolic and immunological compet
 ition in structuring pneumococcal populations and the effects of vaccinati
 on - Watkins\, ER (University of Oxford)
DTSTART:20141028T120000Z
DTEND:20141028T121500Z
UID:TALK55743@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mustapha Amrani
DESCRIPTION:Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) is a major cause o
 f bacterial pneumonia\, septicemia and meningitis worldwide. Traditional s
 erotyping methods have demonstrated that pneumococcal populations are high
 ly diverse\, with over 90 capsular serotypes. More recently\, whole genome
  sequencing has revealed extensive diversity among the metabolic genes\, a
 nd that metabolic alleles tend to segregate in non-overlapping association
 s with the antigenic serotype. Here\, we use a multilocus model in which s
 trains are composed of metabolic\, antigenic and virulence components to e
 xplain these patterns of structuring through ecological and immunological 
 competition in the host.\n \nCurrently\, pneumococcal protein conjugate va
 ccines target only a small subset of its >90 known capsular serotypes. We 
 use our model to show that a strain-targeted vaccination strategy could al
 ter the genomic profile of non-vaccine strains\, potentially leading to an
  increase in their transmissibility and virulence. The results are consist
 ent with data on the changes in the population structure of the pneumococc
 us following vaccination\, including support at the whole genome level in 
 a collection of 600 pneumococcal genomes. \n\nSimilar non-overlapping asso
 ciations among metabolic and antigenic alleles have been observed in a num
 ber of other bacterial pathogens\, suggesting that metabolic and immunolog
 ical competition may play important roles in the maintenance of pathogen p
 opulation structure more generally. Our vaccination findings also have imp
 lications for strain-targeted vaccination in a range of bacterial and vira
 l systems.\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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