RTX cytotoxins play an important role in virulence of numerous gram-negative pathogens. Unexpectedly, however, we show here that the RTX proteins of Neisseria meningitidis are dispensable for virulence in the infant rat model of infection.

Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Bacterial Pathogens Institute of Microbiology Czech Academy of Sciences CZ 142 20 Prague 4 Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Ali, S. A., and A. Steinkasserer. 1995. PCR-ligation-PCR mutagenesis: a protocol for creating gene fusions and mutations. BioTechniques 18:746-750. PubMed

Black, J. R., D. W. Dyer, M. K. Thompson, and P. F. Sparling. 1986. Human immune response to iron-repressible outer membrane proteins of Neisseria meningitidis. Infect. Immun. 54:710-713. PubMed PMC

Eugène, E., I. Hoffmann, C. Pujol, P. O. Couraud, S. Bourdoulous, and X. Nassif. 2002. Microvilli-like structures are associated with the internalization of virulent capsulated Neisseria meningitidis into vascular endothelial cells. J. Cell Sci. 115:1231-1241. PubMed

Klee, S. R., X. Nassif, B. Kusecek, P. Merker, J. L. Beretti, M. Achtman, and C. R. Tinsley. 2000. Molecular and biological analysis of eight genetic islands that distinguish Neisseria meningitidis from the closely related pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Infect. Immun. 68:2082-2095. PubMed PMC

Osicka, R., J. Kalmusova, P. Krizova, and P. Sebo. 2001. Neisseria meningitidis RTX protein FrpC induces high levels of serum antibodies during invasive disease: polymorphism of frpC alleles and purification of recombinant FrpC. Infect. Immun. 69:5509-5519. PubMed PMC

Schryvers, A. B., and I. Stojiljkovic. 1999. Iron acquisition systems in the pathogenic Neisseria. Mol. Microbiol. 32:1117-1123. PubMed

Stojiljkovic, I., V. Hwa, J. Larson, L. Lin, M. So, and X. Nassif. 1997. Cloning and characterization of the Neisseria meningitidis rfaC gene encoding α-1,5 heptosyltransferase I. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 151:41-49. PubMed

Sun, Y. H., S. Bakshi, R. Chalmers, and C. M. Tang. 2000. Functional genomics of Neisseria meningitidis pathogenesis. Nat. Med. 6:1269-1273. PubMed

Tettelin, H., N. J. Saunders, J. Heidelberg, A. C. Jeffries, K. E. Nelson, J. A. Eisen, K. A. Ketchum, D. W. Hood, J. F. Peden, R. J. Dodson, W. C. Nelson, M. L. Gwinn, R. DeBoy, J. D. Peterson, E. K. Hickey, D. H. Haft, S. L. Salzberg, O. White, R. D. Fleischmann, B. A. Dougherty, T. Mason, A. Ciecko, D. S. Parksey, E. Blair, H. Cittone, E. B. Clark, M. D. Cotton, T. R. Utterback, H. Khouri, H. Qin, J. Vamathevan, J. Gill, V. Scarlato, V. Masignani, M. Pizza, G. Grandi, L. Sun, H. O. Smith, C. M. Fraser, E. R. Moxon, R. Rappuoli, and J. C. Venter. 2000. Complete genome sequence of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B strain MC58. Science 287:1809-1815. PubMed

Thompson, S., L. L. Wang, and P. F. Sparling. 1993. Cloning and nucleotide sequence of frpC, a second gene from Neisseria meningitidis encoding a protein similar to RTX cytotoxins. Mol. Microbiol. 9:85-96. PubMed

Thompson, S. A., and P. F. Sparling. 1993. The RTX cytotoxin-related FrpA protein of Neisseria meningitidis is secreted extracellularly by meningococci and by HlyBD+ Escherichia coli. Infect. Immun. 61:2906-2911. PubMed PMC

Thompson, S. A., L. L. Wang, A. West, and P. F. Sparling. 1993. Neisseria meningitidis produces iron-regulated proteins related to the RTX family of exoproteins. J. Bacteriol. 175:811-818. PubMed PMC

Tikhomirov, E., M. Santamaria, and K. Esteves. 1997. Meningococcal disease: public health burden and control. World Health Stat. Q. 50:170-177. PubMed

Tzeng, Y. K., and D. S. Stephens. 2000. Epidemiology and pathogenesis of Neisseria meningitidis. Microbes Infect. 2:687-700. PubMed

Structural Basis of Ca2+-Dependent Self-Processing Activity of Repeat-in-Toxin Proteins

Structural basis of the interaction between the putative adhesion-involved and iron-regulated FrpD and FrpC proteins of Neisseria meningitidis