Streptococcus pneumoniae Genome Diversity Project

A serotype 4 strain of Streptococcus pneumoniae has been sequenced at The Institute for Genomic Research and the sequence data from the genome of S. pneumoniae has expedited the discovery of new genes and the process for uncovering the function and biological importance of known genes.

The importance of intra-species strain-to-strain diversity is a developing area of genomics and bacterial population biology. The genome of individual strains within the same species may vary appreciably in size and gene content and some of this variation may correspond to important pathogenic differences between individual strains. The pneumococcal genome diversity project developed in response to the public availability of one complete pneumococcal genome at the start of the project. The goal of this project is to provide a sequence data set that addresses intra-species genomic diversity.

Fourteen strains have been chosen to try to span the breadth of diversity within this species. Up to 20 different 10kbp regions will be sequenced from each of the 14 strains. These data will provide an important resource for hypotheses addressing intra-species genetic diversity. All data is made available within days of its availability to all of the pneumococcal community at this web site.