We report on the first Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolate in the United States identified with high-level resistance to azithromycin. This report discusses the epidemiologic case investigation, the molecular studies of resistance-associated mutations and N. gonorrhoeae multiantigen sequence typing, and challenges posed by emerging gonococcal antimicrobial resistance.

The function of lytic peptidoglycan transglycosylases is poorly understood. Single lytic transglycosylase mutants of Escherichia coli have no growth phenotype. By contrast, mutation of Neisseria gonorrhoeae ltgC inhibited cell separation without affecting peptidoglycan monomer production. Thus, LtgC has a dedicated function in gonococcal cell division.

We herein report the microbiological features of a Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain isolated from an immunocompetent patient with disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI). The strain expressed the IA/IB serovar; was resistant to penicillin, tetracycline, and ciprofloxacin; and had presumably been acquired in Southeast Asia. To date, this is the first case reported in our country of DGI due to an imp...

We describe a Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain, found in Sweden in 2011, that harbours a N. meningitidis porA gene causing false-negative results in PCRs targeting the gonococcal porA pseudogene. Furthermore, the strain had no prolyliminopeptidase (PIP) activity that many commercial biochemical kits for species verification in culture rely on. Enhanced awareness of the spread of such strains and sc...

Peptidoglycan from Neisseria gonorrhoeae RD5 was completely degraded by hen egg white lysozyme and was not extensively O-acetylated. In contrast, peptidoglycans from gonococcal strains FA19 and FA102 (a penicillin-resistant mutant derived from FA19), were markedly resistant to digestion by hen egg white lysozyme and were extensively O-acetylated.

Microbiologists are still encumbered by the variable performance of Amies charcoal transport medium in recovery of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The objective of this study was to evaluate and select a good quality commercial system to replace our in-house preparation. We adsorbed 0.1 ml of a suspension from 30 gonococcal isolates onto each swab type and replaced the swab into the transport medium. We...

The value of identification of suspicious organisms when cultures are employed in the diagnosis of gonorrhea is still being debated by many. Some believe that fermentation tests are essential; others consider them necessary only in doubtful cases. The latter consider the source of infection, the fact that colonies are oxydase-positive and consist of bean-shaped gram-negative diplococci as suffi...

Strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae were tested for the presence of methyladenine in the DNA sequence GATC by using the site-specific restriction endonucleases MboI and DpnI. It was found that 43 of 83 strains tested contained methylated DNA. When methylation was compared with the auxotype of the organism, 35 of 35 strains with the AHU (arginine-, hypoxanthine-, and uracil-requiring) auxotype and ...

Bacteriocin typing has been described previously and proposed for typing gonococci. A survey has been made of 150 strains of N. gonorrhoeae from various places to determine the feasibility of a gonocin typing system. All strains were found to produce an inhibitory substance which inhibited all strains of gonococci tested, one strain of Neisseria flavescens, two strains of Neisseria meningitidis...

To assess the efficacy of the treatment of gonorrhoea it is important to distinguish as far as possible between relapse and re-infection in the follow-up period, because re-infection is not due to failure of treatment. Post-treatment gonorrhoea or relapse generally occurs within 1 or 2 weeks of treatment. Suspicion of re-infection increases with the length of the gonococcus-free interval betwee...