Expression data of Streptococcus pneumoniae against penicillin. Streptococcus pneumoniae

The increasing rate of penicillin resistance in S. pneumoniae in the early 1970s has resulted in therapeutic challenges and has prompted the need for alternative therapy in the management of pneumococcal infections. The development of penicillin resistance has been documented to be as a result of altered penicillin binding protein which alters the binding capacity of the drug to the organism. We used microarrays to investigate other genes which may be involved in the development of penicillin resistance in S. pneumoniae and identified classes of genes on the surface of the organism which may contribute to resistance. Overall design: Strains of S. pneumoniae with varying initial susceptibility to penicillin were selected. These strains were grown to the logarithmic phase before being exposed to subinhibitory concentration of penicillin. RNA was extracted before and after penicillin stress and hybridized on Affymetrix microarrays and represented as either Untreated (before penicillin stress) or treated (after penicillin stress). This was carried out for 3 representative strains; S676, I81, and R98. S, I, and R abbreviates Sensitive, Intermediate and resistant to Penicillin.