Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection is an important public health issue, with an annual global
incidence of 87 million. N. gonorrhoeae infection causes significant morbidity and can have …

Phase and antigenic variation result in a heterogenic phenotype of a clonal bacterial
population, in which individual cells either express the phase-variable protein (s) or not, or …

In the human body iron is present in growth-limiting amounts for bacteria. For this reason
intricate iron transport and iron regulatory systems evolved in bacteria to guarantee a …

DNA tandem repeats (TRs), also designated as satellite DNA, are inter-or intragenic
nucleotide sequences that are repeated two or more times in a head-to-tail manner …

Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis are closely related organisms that cause
the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea and serious bacterial meningitis and …

Meningococcal FetA (FrpB), an iron-regulated outer-membrane protein and vaccine
component, was shown to be highly diverse: a total of 60 fetA alleles, encoding 56 protein …

Microsatellites are tandemly repeated simple sequence DNA motifs widely prevalent in
eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes. In pathogenic bacteria, instability of these …

Previously, a complete genome analysis of Neisseria meningitidis strain MC58 revealed the
largest repertoire of putative phase-variable genes described in any species to date. Initial …

Analysis of the genome sequence of Neisseria meningitidis strain MC58 revealed 65 genes
associated with simple sequence repeats. Experimental evidence of phase variation exists …

All isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae express receptors that bind human transferrin (Tf).
Although lactoferrin (Lf) is abundant on mucosa and in purulent exudates, many gonococci …