Genetic Switch to Hypervirulence Reduces Colonization Phenotypes of the Globally Disseminated Group A<i>Streptococcus</i>M1T1 Clone

Abstract

Reduced colonization capacity provides a potential explanation for why the covS mutation, which confers hypervirulence, has not become fixed in the globally disseminated M1T1 group A Streptococcus clone, but rather may arise anew under innate immune selection in individual patients.