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Many highly diverse pathogen populations appear to exist stably as discrete antigenic types despite evidence of genetic exchange. It has been shown that this may arise as a consequence of immune selection on pathogen populations, causing them to segregate permanently into discrete nonoverlapping subsets of antigenic variants to minimize competition for available hosts. However, discrete antigenic strain structure tends to break down under conditions where there are unequal numbers of allelic variants at each locus. Here, we show that the inclusion of stochastic processes can lead to the stable recovery of discrete strain structure through loss of certain alleles. This explains how pathogen populations may continue to behave as independently transmitted strains despite inevitable asymmetries in allelic diversity of major antigens. We present evidence for this type of structuring across global meningococcal isolates in three diverse antigens that are currently being developed as vaccine components.

Original publication

DOI

10.1073/pnas.1102445108

Type

Journal article

Journal

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Publication Date

13/09/2011

Volume

108

Pages

15504 - 15509

Keywords

Alleles, Antigenic Variation, Antigens, Bacterial, Cross Reactions, Immunity, Models, Biological, Neisseria meningitidis, Stochastic Processes, Time Factors