Differences in Genotype and Virulence among Four Multidrug-Resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae Isolates Belonging to the PMEN1 Clone

We report on the comparative genomics and characterization of the virulence phenotypes of four S. pneumoniae strains that belong to the multidrug resistant clone PMEN1 (Spain23F ST81). Strains SV35-T23 and SV36-T3 were recovered in 1996 from the nasopharynx of patients at an AIDS hospice in New York. Strain SV36-T3 expressed capsule type 3 which is unusual for this clone and represents the product of an in vivo capsular switch event. A third PMEN1 isolate – PN4595-T23 – was recovered in 1996 from the nasopharynx of a child attending day care in Portugal, and a fourth strain – ATCC700669 – was originally isolated from a patient with pneumococcal disease in Spain in 1984. We compared the genomes among fou