Global Pneumococcal Strain Bank and Sequencing Project

Key points

  • CDC's Streptococcus Laboratory maintains an extensive, diverse, and well-characterized collection of pneumococcal isolates.
  • The laboratory also supports a project that measures the impact of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine use on pneumococcal disease globally.

Strain bank repository

CDC's Streptococcus Laboratory collaborated with numerous partners to develop a S. pneumoniae strain bank repository. The project was funded for three years (2008–2011) by the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH).

Purpose

The global pneumococcal strain bank has accumulated an extensive, diverse, and well-characterized collection of pneumococcal isolates.

Scope

The bank includes more than 6,000 isolates recovered from people in 60 different countries, including 30 developing countries, with either:

  • Invasive pneumococcal disease or pneumonia
  • Pneumococcus carriage

Researchers performed detailed phenotypic (serotyping and antibiograms) and genotypic (multilocus sequence typing) testing on these isolates. Each isolate has associated demographic information available.

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

Global Pneumococcal Sequencing Project

The Global Pneumococcal Sequencing Project (GPS) began in October 2011 and was extended through 2025.

Purpose

GPS strengthens pneumococcal genomic surveillance worldwide. GPS also examines the effect of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) use in developing countries on pneumococcal strains that

  • Cause disease
  • May be escaping the vaccine

Researchers sequenced and compared whole-genome sequences of the species before and after vaccine introduction.

Scope

The project included whole-genome sequencing of strains of pneumococci from around the world. Sequencing data for 2,000 strains from CDC's Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs) were also included.

These strains from ABCs

  • Represent isolates from major clonal complexes
  • Provide a baseline for comparison of strains from developing countries

More than 26,000 genomes were sequenced during the initial project timeline. Additional post-PCV strains are being sequenced and analyzed now due to the extended timeline.

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