Phase variation mediates reductions in expression of surface proteins during persistent meningococcal carriage.

ABSTRACT: Asymptomatic and persistent colonization of the upper respiratory tract by Neisseria meningitidis occurs despite elicitation of adaptive immune responses against surface antigens. A putative mechanism for facilitating host persistence of this bacterial commensal and pathogen is alterations in expression of surface antigens by simple sequence repeat (SSR)-mediated phase variation. We investigated how often phase variation occurs during persistent carriage by analyzing the SSRs of eight loci in multiple isolates from 21 carriers representative of 1 to 6 months carriage. Alterations in repeat number were detected by a GeneScan analysis and occurred at 0.06 mutations/gene/month of carriage. The expression states were determined by Western blotting and two genes, fetA and nadA, exhibited trends

SUBMITTER: Alamro M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4019173 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature