<p>This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> <p><italic>Streptococcus pneumoniae</italic> is an important human pathogen associated with pneumonia, septicaemia, meningitis and otitis media. It is estimated to result in over 3 million child deaths worldwide every year and an even greater number of deaths among the elderly. Prior to the complete sequencing of the genomes of <italic>S. pneumoniae</italic> TIGR4 (serotype 4) and <italic>S. pneumoniae</italic> R6 (serotype 2), we designed a custom miniarray
consisting of 497 pneumococcal genes. The overall objectives of our microarray investigations
were, first, to assess the genetic diversity between different <italic>S. pneumoniae</italic>
serotypes, clinical isolates and also different <italic>Streptococcus</italic> species; second, we aimed to use microarray technology to examine the mechanisms by which environmental
factors influence pneumococcal gene expression, and ultimately to further the understanding
of how these changes in gene expression are achieved and how they may
alter the virulence of the organism.</p>
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Comp Funct Genomics. 2002 Aug; 3(4):366-368