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Neisseria meningitidis undergoes PilC phase variation and PilE sequence variation during invasive disease

Rytkonen, Anne ; Albiger, Barbara LU ; Hansson-Palo, Paola ; Kallstrom, Helena ; Olcen, Per ; Fredlund, Hans and Jonsson, Ann-Beth (2004) In Journal of Infectious Diseases 189(3). p.402-409
Abstract
Neisseria meningitidis colonizes the upper respiratory tract (URT), enters the blood stream, and reaches the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In the present study, we show that bacteria isolated from the URT adhere better to human epithelial cells, compared with bacteria from blood or CSF, which suggests that important changes of virulence-associated proteins take place during bacterial dissemination. Phase variation in the pilus adhesin PilC and sequence variation in the pilus subunit PilE occurred among strains from 1 patient. Changes were not found in the invasion-associated opacity proteins or in lipooligosaccharides. PilC was frequently expressed in serogroup B strains and in URT strains but was often switched off in other serogroups and in... (More)
Neisseria meningitidis colonizes the upper respiratory tract (URT), enters the blood stream, and reaches the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In the present study, we show that bacteria isolated from the URT adhere better to human epithelial cells, compared with bacteria from blood or CSF, which suggests that important changes of virulence-associated proteins take place during bacterial dissemination. Phase variation in the pilus adhesin PilC and sequence variation in the pilus subunit PilE occurred among strains from 1 patient. Changes were not found in the invasion-associated opacity proteins or in lipooligosaccharides. PilC was frequently expressed in serogroup B strains and in URT strains but was often switched off in other serogroups and in CSF strains. Strains lacking PilC showed impaired adhesion to epithelial cells. These data argue that N. meningitidis undergoes PilC phase variation and PilE sequence variation during invasive disease. (Less)
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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Infectious Diseases
volume
189
issue
3
pages
402 - 409
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • pmid:14745697
  • scopus:1142273121
ISSN
1537-6613
DOI
10.1086/381271
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
7d55a294-0f01-496b-bd7f-fdf403793490 (old id 1129073)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 16:21:55
date last changed
2022-01-28 19:12:15
@article{7d55a294-0f01-496b-bd7f-fdf403793490,
  abstract     = {{Neisseria meningitidis colonizes the upper respiratory tract (URT), enters the blood stream, and reaches the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In the present study, we show that bacteria isolated from the URT adhere better to human epithelial cells, compared with bacteria from blood or CSF, which suggests that important changes of virulence-associated proteins take place during bacterial dissemination. Phase variation in the pilus adhesin PilC and sequence variation in the pilus subunit PilE occurred among strains from 1 patient. Changes were not found in the invasion-associated opacity proteins or in lipooligosaccharides. PilC was frequently expressed in serogroup B strains and in URT strains but was often switched off in other serogroups and in CSF strains. Strains lacking PilC showed impaired adhesion to epithelial cells. These data argue that N. meningitidis undergoes PilC phase variation and PilE sequence variation during invasive disease.}},
  author       = {{Rytkonen, Anne and Albiger, Barbara and Hansson-Palo, Paola and Kallstrom, Helena and Olcen, Per and Fredlund, Hans and Jonsson, Ann-Beth}},
  issn         = {{1537-6613}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{402--409}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Journal of Infectious Diseases}},
  title        = {{Neisseria meningitidis undergoes PilC phase variation and PilE sequence variation during invasive disease}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/381271}},
  doi          = {{10.1086/381271}},
  volume       = {{189}},
  year         = {{2004}},
}