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

J Infect Dis. 2004 Feb 1;189(3):402-9. doi: 10.1086/381271. Epub 2004 Jan 20.

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.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Bacterial Adhesion
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Epithelial Cells / microbiology
  • Fimbriae Proteins / genetics*
  • Fimbriae Proteins / metabolism
  • Fimbriae, Bacterial / genetics
  • Fimbriae, Bacterial / metabolism
  • Genetic Variation
  • Humans
  • Meningococcal Infections / blood
  • Meningococcal Infections / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Meningococcal Infections / microbiology*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Neisseria meningitidis / genetics*
  • Respiratory Tract Infections / blood
  • Respiratory Tract Infections / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Respiratory Tract Infections / microbiology*
  • Sequence Alignment

Substances

  • PilEII protein, Neisseria meningitidis
  • pilC protein, Neisseria gonorrhoeae
  • Fimbriae Proteins