ArticleNature communications2024
Pneumococcal competence is a populational health sensor driving multilevel heterogeneity in response to antibiotics.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- A synopsis of competence-regulated virulence inVirulence · 2026Review
- Humic acid's sheltering effect paradoxically promotes antibiotic resistance gene dissemination during peroxymonosulfate water treatment.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Single-cell approach dissecting agr quorum sensing dynamics in Staphylococcus aureus.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Regulatory mechanisms of quorum sensing in microbial communities and their potential applications in ruminant livestock production.Journal of advanced research · 2026Review
- Article
- Genomic and functional dissection of natural transformation-related genes inMicrobiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Cell density and single-cell heterogeneity reveal distinct competence induction dynamics in the high-GC Gram-positive Micrococcus luteus.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- A toxin/antitoxin system targeting the replication sliding-clamp induces competence in Streptococcus pneumoniae.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Chromosomal Curing Drives an Arms Race Between Bacterial Transformation and Prophage.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Transient inhibition of cell division in competent pneumococcal cells results from deceleration of the septal peptidoglycan complex.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Structure, Function, and Regulation of LytA: TheMicroorganisms · 2025Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Competence for natural transformation is a central driver of genetic diversity in bacteria. In the human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae, competence exhibits a populational character mediated by the stress-induced ComABCDE quorum-sensing (QS) system. Here, we explore how this cell-to-cell communication mechanism proceeds and the functional properties acquired by competent cells grown under lethal stress. We show that populational competence development depends on self-induced cells stochastically emerging in response to stresses, including antibiotics. Competence then propagates through the population from a low threshold density of self-induced cells, defining a biphasic Self-Induction and Propagation (SI&P) QS mechanism. We also reveal that a competent population displays either increased sensitivity or improved tolerance to lethal doses of antibiotics, dependent in the latter case on the competence-induced ComM division inhibitor. Remarkably, these surviving competent cells also display an altered transformation potential. Thus, the unveiled SI&P QS mechanism shapes pneumococcal competence as a health sensor of the clonal population, promoting a bet-hedging strategy that both responds to and drives cells towards heterogeneity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.