Bacteriocin-like peptides encoded by a horizontally acquired island mediate Neisseria gonorrhoeae autolysis.

ABSTRACT: Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a human-specific pathogen that causes the important sexually transmitted infection, gonorrhoea, an inflammatory condition of the genitourinary tract. The bacterium is closely related to the meningococcus, a leading cause of bacterial meningitis. Both these invasive bacterial species undergo autolysis when in the stationary phase of growth. Autolysis is a form of programmed cell death (PCD) which is part of the life cycle of remarkably few bacteria and poses an evolutionary conundrum as altruistic death provides no obvious benefit for single-celled organisms. Here, we searched for genes present in these 2 invasive species but not in other members of the Neisseria genus. We identified a ~3.4 kb horizontally acquired region, we termed the nap island, which is largely

SUBMITTER: Poncin K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11798529 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature