A homopolymeric adenosine tract in the promoter region of nspA influences factor H-mediated serum resistance in Neisseria meningitidis.

Although usually asymptomatically colonizing the human nasopharynx, the Gram-negative bacterium Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcus) can spread to the blood stream and cause invasive disease. For survival in blood, N. meningitidis evades the complement system by expression of a polysaccharide capsule and surface proteins sequestering the complement regulator factor H (fH).

Children with burns referred for child abuse evaluation: Burn characteristics and co-existent injuries.

Intentional burns represent a serious form of physical abuse that must be identified to protect children from further harm. This study is a retrospectively planned secondary analysis of the Examining Siblings To Recognize Abuse (ExSTRA) network data. Our objective was to describe the characteristics of burns injuries in children referred to Child Abuse Pediatricians (CAPs) in relation to the perceived likelihood of abuse.

The zinc-responsive regulon of Neisseria meningitidis comprises 17 genes under control of a Zur element.

Zinc is a bivalent cation essential for bacterial growth and metabolism. The human pathogen Neisseria meningitidis expresses a homologue of the Zinc uptake regulator Zur, which has been postulated to repress the putative zinc uptake protein ZnuD. In this study, we elucidated the transcriptome of meningococci in response to zinc by microarrays and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR).

Opc expression, LPS immunotype switch and pilin conversion contribute to serum resistance of unencapsulated meningococci.

Neisseria meningitidis employs polysaccharides and outer membrane proteins to cope with human serum complement attack. To screen for factors influencing serum resistance, an assay was developed based on a colorimetric serum bactericidal assay. The screening used a genetically modified sequence type (ST)-41/44 clonal complex (cc) strain lacking LPS sialylation, polysaccharide capsule, the factor H binding protein (fHbp) and MutS, a protein of the DNA repair mechanism.

Capsule null locus meningococci: typing of antigens used in an investigational multicomponent meningococcus serogroup B vaccine.

The investigational multicomponent meningococcus serogroup B vaccine (4CMenB) targets the antigenetically variable population of serogroup B meningococci. Forty-one strains of capsule null locus (cnl) meningococci, which are frequent among healthy carriers, were selected from nine sequence types (ST), which belong to four clonal complexes (cc), and three countries. They were antigen sequence typed and analyzed for antigen expression to predict whether these strains harbor the genes and express the four vaccine antigens of 4CMenB as measured by the meningococcal antigen typing system (MATS).

Identification of specific genes in Staphylococcus aureus strains associated with bovine mastitis.

Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of bovine mastitis that is responsible for the main economic loss to the dairy industry. For identification of putative, bovine-specific molecular marker a genome comparison between bovine S. aureus strain RF122 and 52 previously sequenced S.