Discovery of β-lactam-resistant variants in diverse pneumococcal populations

Understanding of antibiotic resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae has been hindered by the low frequency of recombination events in bacteria and thus the presence of large linked haplotype blocks, which preclude identification of causative variants. A recent study combining a large number of genomes of resistant phenotypes has given an insight into the evolving resistance to β-lactams, providing the first large-scale identification of candidate variants underlying resistance.