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. 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”.