Dynamic Pneumococcal Genetic Adaptations Support Bacterial Growth and Inflammation During Coinfection with Influenza

Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is one of the primary bacterial pathogens that complicates influenza virus infections. These bacterial coinfections increase influenza-associated morbidity and mortality through a number of immunological and viral-mediated mechanisms, but the specific bacterial genes that contribute to post-influenza pathogenicity are not known.To identify the pneumococcal factors that increase bacterial fitness during IAV(influenza A virus) infection, we employed a high-throughput, transposon sequencing (Tn-Seq) approach to reveal bacterial genes that confer improved fitness in influenza-infected hosts.Inoculums were prepped via Tn-seq. Bacteria was recovered from the lungs of individual animals and sequenced. Some samples were pooled during analysis. All samples were sequenced in rapid run mode on an Illumina HiSeq 2000.