Global Pneumococcal Strain Bank and Global Pneumococcal Sequencing Project

The Global Pneumococcal Strain Bank

The CDC Streptococcus Laboratory in collaboration with numerous partners developed a Streptococcus pneumoniae strain bank repository. The purpose of this project, funded for 3-years by Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) (2008–2011), was to accumulate an extensive, diverse, well-characterized collection of pneumococcal isolates. These isolates have caused invasive disease and pneumonia, recovered primarily from children in developing countries.

Researchers performed detailed phenotypic (serotyping and antibiograms) and genotypic (multilocus sequence typing) testing on these isolates. These data with associated demographic information are available for each isolate. The bank includes more than 6,000 isolates from pneumococcal disease and carriage in 60 different countries, including 30 developing countries.

For access to isolates and additional information, email StrepLab@cdc.gov.

Global Pneumococcal Sequencing Project

The Global Pneumococcal Sequencing Project (GPS) examines the effect of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine use on the prevalent disease-causing pneumococcal strains and strains that may be escaping the vaccine in developing countries. Researchers involved in the project are sequencing and comparing whole-genome sequences of the species before and after vaccine introduction. The project began in October 2011 and has been extended to December 2023 through GPS2.0.

The project includes whole-genome sequencing of strains of pneumococci from around the world, including sequencing data for 2,000 strains from CDC’s Active Bacterial Core surveillance. These strains represent isolates from major clonal complexes, providing a baseline for comparison of strains from the developing world. More than 23,000 genomes were sequenced through GPS1.0 and additional post-PCV strains will be sequenced and analyzed in GPS2.0.

For more information on the project visit www.pneumogen.net.

For a distinct project based solely upon data from the United States pre- and post-introduction of 13-valent conjugate vaccine, see Metcalf BJ, Gertz RE Jr, Gladstone RA, et al. Strain features and distributions in pneumococci from children with invasive disease before and after 13-valent conjugate vaccine implementation in the USA. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2016;22(1):60.e9–60.e29.