The sialylation of the lipooligosaccharide (LOS) of Neisseria meningitidis is mediated by the LOS sialyltransferase enzyme encoded by the lst gene. PCR using four sets of primers that targeted to different regions of the lst gene was used to survey the distribution of lst in different serogroups and LOS immunotypes of N. meningitidis as well as other Neisseria species. While the lst gene was fo...

Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis) is a non-motile, Gram-negative bacterium. N. meningitidis is often referred as meningococci and causes cerebrospinal fever and bacterial meningitis. Although antibiotics such as penicillin, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, rifampin and polymixin were used to treat bacterial meningitis, but N. meningitidis exhibits multi drug resistance. Therefore, designing n...

The BamA protein is the key component of the Bam complex, the assembly machinery for outer membrane proteins (OMP) in gram-negative bacteria. We previously demonstrated that BamA recognizes its OMP substrates in a species-specific manner in vitro. In this work, we further studied species specificity in vivo by testing the functioning of BamA homologs of the proteobacteria Neisseria meningitidis...

Neisseria meningitidis is a facultative pathogen bacterium which is well founded with a number of adhesion molecules to facilitate its colonization in human nasopharynx track. Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of mortality from sever meningococcal disease and septicemia. The Neisseria meningitidis adhesion, NadA, is a trimeric autotransporter adhesion molecule which is involved in cell ad...

background: neisseria meninigitidis is one of the most frequently encountered microorganisms associated with central nervous system infections. the aim of this study was to evaluate a pcr-based assay for specific and rapid detection of n. meninigitidis in csf specimens.   methods : since april 2002 to july 2006, 130 csf specimens were collected from patients suspected of having bacterial mening...

The three species Neisseria meningitidis, Neisseria gonorrheae, and Neisseria lactamica are often regarded as highly recombining bacteria. N. meningitidis has been considered a paradigmatic case of the "semiclonal model" or of "epidemic clonality," demonstrating occasional bouts of clonal propagation in an otherwise recombining species. In this model, occasional clonality generates linkage dise...

In 2010, Jaton et al. (False-negative PCR result due to gene polymorphism: the example of Neisseria meningitidis. J Clin Microbiol 2010;48:4590-2) reported an isolate of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B that was not detected by the ctrA quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) used in our diagnostic laboratory. Sequence analysis of ctrA revealed several single nucleotide polymorphisms responsible...

Oligonucleotide- and cDNA-based microarrays comprising a subset of Neisseria meningitidis genes were assessed for study of the meningococcal heat shock response and found to be highly suitable for transcriptional profiling of N. meningitidis. Employing oligonucleotide arrays encompassing the entire genome of N. meningitidis, we analyzed the meningococcal heat shock response on a global scale an...

BACKGROUND Natural immunity to Neisseria meningitidis may result from nasopharyngeal carriage of closely related commensals, such as Neisseria lactamica. METHODS We enrolled 61 students with no current carriage of Neisseria species and inoculated them intranasally with 10,000 colony-forming units of Neisseria lactamica or sham control. Colonization was monitored in oropharyngeal samples over ...

We investigated the conservation and antibody accessibility of inner core epitopes of Neisseria meningitidis lipopolysaccharide (LPS) because of their potential as vaccine candidates. An immunoglobulin G3 murine monoclonal antibody (MAb), designated MAb B5, was obtained by immunizing mice with a galE mutant of N. meningitidis H44/76 (B. 15.P1.7,16 immunotype L3). We have shown that MAb B5 can b...