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Identification of antibiotic induced persister cells in Streptococcus agalactiae

Greve, Nanna Boll LU orcid ; Slotved, Hans Christian ; Olsen, John Elmerdahl and Thomsen, Line Elnif (2024) In PLOS ONE 19(6).
Abstract

Antibiotic persistence is a phenomenon, where a small fraction of a bacterial population expresses a phenotypic variation that allows them to survive antibiotic treatment, which is lethal to the rest of the population. These cells are called persisters cells, and their occurrence has been associated with recurrent disease. Streptococcus agalactiae is a human pathobiont, able to cause invasive infections, and recurrent infections have been reported to occur in both newborns and adults. In this study, we demonstrated that S. agalactiae NEM316 can form persister cells when exposed to antibiotics from different classes. The frequency of persister cell formation was dependent on bacterial growth phase and the class of antibiotics. The... (More)

Antibiotic persistence is a phenomenon, where a small fraction of a bacterial population expresses a phenotypic variation that allows them to survive antibiotic treatment, which is lethal to the rest of the population. These cells are called persisters cells, and their occurrence has been associated with recurrent disease. Streptococcus agalactiae is a human pathobiont, able to cause invasive infections, and recurrent infections have been reported to occur in both newborns and adults. In this study, we demonstrated that S. agalactiae NEM316 can form persister cells when exposed to antibiotics from different classes. The frequency of persister cell formation was dependent on bacterial growth phase and the class of antibiotics. The ability to form persister cells in response to penicillin was shown to be a general trait among different clinical S. agalactiae isolates, independent of sero- and sequence-type. Taken together, this study shows the existence of antibiotic tolerant S. agalactiae persister cells, which may explain why this bacterial species frequently persists after treatment of invasive infection and can be associated with recurrent disease.

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author
; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
PLOS ONE
volume
19
issue
6
article number
e0303271
publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
external identifiers
  • scopus:85196939649
  • pmid:38924011
ISSN
1932-6203
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0303271
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2024 Greve et al.
id
91ca28e9-5bd4-41eb-9370-630a17720738
date added to LUP
2026-05-07 09:10:26
date last changed
2026-09-12 01:12:29
@article{91ca28e9-5bd4-41eb-9370-630a17720738,
  abstract     = {{<p>Antibiotic persistence is a phenomenon, where a small fraction of a bacterial population expresses a phenotypic variation that allows them to survive antibiotic treatment, which is lethal to the rest of the population. These cells are called persisters cells, and their occurrence has been associated with recurrent disease. Streptococcus agalactiae is a human pathobiont, able to cause invasive infections, and recurrent infections have been reported to occur in both newborns and adults. In this study, we demonstrated that S. agalactiae NEM316 can form persister cells when exposed to antibiotics from different classes. The frequency of persister cell formation was dependent on bacterial growth phase and the class of antibiotics. The ability to form persister cells in response to penicillin was shown to be a general trait among different clinical S. agalactiae isolates, independent of sero- and sequence-type. Taken together, this study shows the existence of antibiotic tolerant S. agalactiae persister cells, which may explain why this bacterial species frequently persists after treatment of invasive infection and can be associated with recurrent disease.</p>}},
  author       = {{Greve, Nanna Boll and Slotved, Hans Christian and Olsen, John Elmerdahl and Thomsen, Line Elnif}},
  issn         = {{1932-6203}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  publisher    = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
  series       = {{PLOS ONE}},
  title        = {{Identification of antibiotic induced persister cells in Streptococcus agalactiae}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0303271}},
  doi          = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0303271}},
  volume       = {{19}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}