An in vivo atlas of host-pathogen transcriptomes during Streptococcus pneumoniae colonization and disease

D'Mello et al. detail host-pathogen interaction gene expression profiles of Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) and its infected host at disease relevant anatomical sites using mice as experimental models. The authors identify the core and organ-specific transcriptomes of Spn, show that bacterial and host gene expression profiles are highly distinct during asymptomatic colonization versus disease-causing infection, and demonstrate that Spn and host genes with high levels of expression contribute to pathogenesis or host defense, respectively. Overall design: 71 mRNA profiles of Streptococcus pneumoniae samples that were grown under different conditions were generated using deep sequencing: PRJNA340293 including 3 planktonic, 3 biofilm, 3 infected mouse hearts, 2 infected mouse blood and 3 uninfected mouse hearts; and PRJNA629527 including 6 mouse blood (4 infected, 2 uninfected), 8 mouse kidneys (6 infected, 2 uninfected), 8 mouse lungs (6 infected, 2 uninfected), and 8 mouse nasopharynx (6 infected, 2 uninfected). This work was supported with funds from: i) Merck, Sharpe & Dohme, Corp. under the Merck Investigator Studies Program (MISP) award IISP ID#: 57329 – Pneumovax entitled: “Dual RNA-seq for characterization of the Streptococcus pneumoniae and host transcriptomes during bacteremia/invasive disease”, and ii) the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the R01AI114800 award entitled: “Cardiac microlesion formation during invasive pneumococcal disease”.