title: Neisseria meningitidis undergoes PilC phase variation and PilE sequence variation during invasive disease.
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.
authors.affiliation: Microbiology and Tumor Biology Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rytkönen
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Albiger
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hansson-Palo
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Källström
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Olcén
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fredlund
authors.forename: Ann-Beth
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Jonsson
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000382:microbiology; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008589:Meningococcal Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis / Q000235:genetics*; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000382:microbiology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: C429277:PilEII protein, Neisseria meningitidis; C079208:pilC protein, Neisseria gonorrhoeae; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins