Group B Strep After Antibiotics: Survival, Persistence, and Evolution

In this episode of Editors in Conversation mBio edition, Marvin Whiteley speaks with Macy Pell and Shannon Manning about how group B Streptococcus (GBS) responds to antibiotics given during childbirth to prevent newborn infections. GBS can cause serious neonatal disease, and intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis has greatly reduced early-onset infections. But some GBS strains persist after treatment. The conversation explores a recent mBio study comparing GBS isolates collected from the same individuals before and after antibiotic treatment and childbirth. Rather than simply acquiring new resistance genes, persistent strains accumulated mutations associated with adaptation, including the emergence of strains with unusually high mutation rates. Pell and Manning discuss what these findings reveal about bacterial persistence, evolution under antibiotic pressure, and why understanding GBS survival may require looking beyond antibiotic resistance alone. Relevant links: Genomic adaptation in group B Streptococcus following intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis and childbirth https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.03966-25 (Macy E. Pell, Heather M. Blankenship, Jennifer A. Gaddy, H. Dele Davies, Shannon D. Manning.) Guests: Macy E. Pell, PhD Department of Microbiology, Genetics, and Immunology Michigan State University Shannon D. Manning, PhD Department of Microbiology, Genetics, and Immunology Michigan State University