These differences in pulmonary and systemic pneumococcal loads were associated with significantly decreased mortality in IL-27R-deficient mice (Fig 3G), and this correlation between pneumococcal burdens and mortality was expected during pneumococcal infection, which was consistent with the reports as described in our previous studies and others when studying the protection of novel pneumococcal protein vaccines against pneumococcal infection (Giefing et al, 2008; Gong et al, 2011; Min et al, 2012). This evidence concerns the gene IL27RA and pneumococcal infection.