Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae is a gram-positive opportunistic pathogen, and infection risks of S. pneumoniae can be profoundly augmented by its acquired multidrug-resistance (MDR). The rapid development of MDR in S. pneumoniae was attributed to the international dissemination of a small number of multidrug-resistant "clones." Clonal complex (CC) 271 is a prevalent MDR CC in the world and the most prevalent CC in China. However, the evolutionary trajectories of multidrug-resistant S. pneumoniae CC271 in China still are largely unknown.
Methods: We investigated a collection of 1312 S. pneumoniae isolates collected from 28 tertiary hospitals in China from 2007 to 2020. Recombination prediction and recombination-masked phylogenetic analysis were combined to determine the population structure and mode of evolution of CC271. Data from the Global Pneumococcal Sequencing program (GPS) were combined to understand the global distribution of clones identified in this study. Bayesian analysis were recruited to analysis the evolutionary dynamics of dominant clones within CC271 in China.
Results: The phylogenomic analysis resulted in the discovery of two globally distributed clones, ST271-A and ST271-B. ST271-A was a derivative of ST236 and an ancestor of ST271-B and ST320, refining the internal phylogenetic relationship of CC271. ST271-B was the most dominant clone in China, with higher β-lactam resistance especially for cephalosporins comparing to other MDR clones. Bayesian skyline plot showed a rapid expansion of 19F ST271-B from 1995 to 2000, which correlates with the widespread use of cephalosporins in the 1990s in China. 19A ST320, a vaccine-escape clone, is the second largest population in China. The Bayesian skyline plot showed that the 19A ST320 began to expand rapidly around 2001, which appeared to coincide with the prevalence of 19A after application of PCV7 in 2000 in the USA. We also observed frequent transmission of 19A ST320 between countries. It suggests that mass vaccination in some countries could affect the prevalence of clones in unvaccinated countries in the context of high-frequency international transmission.
Conclusions: Our results refined the internal phylogenetic relationship of CC271, showing that the 19F ST271-B and 19A ST320 evolved independently from ST271-A, with different histories and driving forces for their evolution and dissemination in China.
Keywords: CC271; Multidrug-resistant Clone; Streptococcus pneumoniae; Vaccine escape; Whole-genome sequencing.
© 2023. The Author(s).