Listeria monocytogenes genes required for systemic mouse infection

The goal of this study was to determine genes required by the human pathogen Listeria monocytogenes to survive in the mouse liver and spleen which are niches for replication in human disease. A library of 17,000 L. monocytogenes 10403S transposon mutants was infected into mice via the blood and surviving bacteria were collected from livers and spleens 34 hours after infection. The remaining bacteria after infection were compared to the input library to determine conditional essentiality.