Publications

novel strategy to protect against influenza virus-induced pneumococcal disease without interfering with commensal colonization.	streptococcus pneumoniae commonly inhabits the nasopharynx as a member of the commensal biofilm. infection with respiratory viruses, such as influenza a virus, induces commensal s. pneumoniae to disseminate beyond the nasopharynx and to elicit severe infections of the middle ears, lungs, and blood that are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. current preventive strategies, including the polysaccharide conjugate vaccines, aim to eliminate asymptomatic carriage with vaccine-type ...	2016	27001538
neisseria lactamica causing a lung cavity and skin rash in a renal transplant patient: first report from india.	neisseria lactamica, a commensal, has been very rarely reported to cause diseases in immunocompromised hosts. in medical literature, there is only one report of a cavitatory lung lesion caused by it. the patient was a kidney transplant recipient. neisseria lactamica was found to be the cause of his pulmonary cavity and a desquamating rash on feet. with the rapidly spreading medical advance, more and more patients are getting organ transplants, so the population of immunocompromised people is on ...	2016	27006840
pharyngeal carriage of neisseria species in the african meningitis belt.	neisseria meningitidis, together with the non-pathogenic neisseria species (npns), are members of the complex microbiota of the human pharynx. this paper investigates the influence of npns on the epidemiology of meningococcal infection.	2016	27018131
population and functional genomics of neisseria revealed with gene-by-gene approaches.	rapid low-cost whole-genome sequencing (wgs) is revolutionizing microbiology; however, complementary advances in accessible, reproducible, and rapid analysis techniques are required to realize the potential of these data. here, investigations of the genus neisseria illustrated the gene-by-gene conceptual approach to the organization and analysis of wgs data. using the gene and its link to phenotype as a starting point, the bigsdb database, which powers the pubmlst databases, enables the assembly ...	2016	27098959
a comparative structure/function analysis of two type iv pilin dna receptors defines a novel mode of dna binding.	dna transformation is a widespread process allowing bacteria to capture free dna by using filamentous nano-machines composed of type iv pilins. these proteins can act as dna receptors as demonstrated by the finding that neisseria meningitidis comp minor pilin has intrinsic dna-binding ability. comp binds dna better when it contains the dna-uptake sequence (dus) motif abundant in this species genome, playing a role in its trademark ability to selectively take up its own dna. here, we report high- ...	2016	27161979
multiplex assay for simultaneous detection of mycoplasma genitalium and macrolide resistance using plexzyme and plexprime technology.	mycoplasma genitalium is a cause of non-gonoccocal urethritis (ngu) in men and cervicitis and pelvic inflammatory disease in women. recent international data also indicated that the first line treatment, 1 gram stat azithromycin therapy, for m. genitalium is becoming less effective, with the corresponding emergence of macrolide resistant strains. increasing failure rates of azithromycin for m. genitalium has significant implications for the presumptive treatment of ngu and international clinical ...	2016	27271704
bacterial succession on rat carcasses and applications for pmi estimation.	abstract:	2016	27301077
activation of trif-dependent and independent immune responses by neisserial heat shock protein complex vaccines.	asbtract heat shock protein complex (hspc) vaccines are composed of hsp purified from pathogenic bacteria along with their chaperoned protein cargo. mouse studies have shown that hspc vaccines can induce a strong immune response against pathogenic bacteria without addition of an exogenous adjuvant. these vaccines are now entering clinical trials. it was predicted, but not previously tested, that hspc vaccines induce an immune response due to the activation of toll-like receptors (tlr) by their c ...	2016	27322634
the microbiota in bronchoalveolar lavage from young children with chronic lung disease includes taxa present in both the oropharynx and nasopharynx.	invasive methods requiring general anaesthesia are needed to sample the lung microbiota in young children who do not expectorate. this poses substantial challenges to longitudinal study of paediatric airway microbiota. non-invasive upper airway sampling is an alternative method for monitoring airway microbiota; however, there are limited data describing the relationship of such results with lung microbiota in young children. in this study, we compared the upper and lower airway microbiota in you ...	2016	27388563
analysis of the mouse gut microbiome using full-length 16s rrna amplicon sequencing.	demands for faster and more accurate methods to analyze microbial communities from natural and clinical samples have been increasing in the medical and healthcare industry. recent advances in next-generation sequencing technologies have facilitated the elucidation of the microbial community composition with higher accuracy and greater throughput than was previously achievable; however, the short sequencing reads often limit the microbial composition analysis at the species level due to the high ...	2016	27411898
performance of an in-house real-time polymerase chain reaction for identification of mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in laboratory routine diagnosis from a high burden setting.	brazil is one of the high burden countries for tuberculosis, and a rapid diagnosis is essential for effective control of the disease. in the present study, an in-house real-time polymerase chain reaction (pcr) assay targeting the mpt64 gene for identification of mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolates was evaluated under routine diagnosis conditions in a reference laboratory. from may 2011 to july 2012, 1,520 isolates of mycobacteria were prospectively submitted for phenotypic and/or pra-hsp ...	2016	27598243
resolution of a protracted serogroup b meningococcal outbreak with whole-genome sequencing shows interspecies genetic transfer.	a carriage study was undertaken (n = 112) to ascertain the prevalence of neisseria spp. following the eighth case of invasive meningococcal disease in young children (5 to 46 months) and members of a large extended indigenous ethnic minority traveller family (n = 123), typically associated with high-occupancy living conditions. nested multilocus sequence typing (mlst) was employed for case specimen extracts. isolates were genome sequenced and then were assembled de novo and deposited into the ba ...	2016	27629899
comprehensive laboratory evaluation of a highly specific lateral flow assay for the presumptive identification of bacillus anthracis spores in suspicious white powders and environmental samples.	we conducted a comprehensive, multiphase laboratory evaluation of the anthrax biothreat alert(®) test strip, a lateral flow immunoassay (lfa) for the rapid detection of bacillus anthracis spores. the study, conducted at 2 sites, evaluated this assay for the detection of spores from the ames and sterne strains of b. anthracis, as well as those from an additional 22 strains. phylogenetic near neighbors, environmental background organisms, white powders, and environmental samples were also tested. ...	2016	27661796
correia repeat enclosed elements and non-coding rnas in the neisseria species.	neisseria gonorrhoeae is capable of causing gonorrhoea and more complex diseases in the human host. neisseria meningitidis is a closely related pathogen that shares many of the same genomic features and virulence factors, but causes the life threatening diseases meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia. the importance of non-coding rnas in gene regulation has become increasingly evident having been demonstrated to be involved in regulons responsible for iron acquisition, antigenic variation, and ...	2016	27681925
resistance to β-lactams in neisseria ssp due to chromosomally encoded penicillin-binding proteins.	neisseria meningitidis and neisseria gonorrhoeae are human pathogens that cause a variety of life-threatening systemic and local infections, such as meningitis or gonorrhoea. the treatment of such infection is becoming more difficult due to antibiotic resistance. the focus of this review is on the mechanism of reduced susceptibility to penicillin and other β-lactams due to the modification of chromosomally encoded penicillin-binding proteins (pbp), in particular pbp2 encoded by the pena gene. th ...	2016	27690121
outer membrane vesicles from flagellin-deficient salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium induce cross-reactive immunity and provide cross-protection against heterologous salmonella challenge.	outer membrane vesicles (omvs) isolated from salmonella typhimurium are potentially useful for developing subunit vaccines because of high immunogenicity and protective efficacy. however, flagella might remain in omv pellets following omv purification, resulting in non-essential immune responses and counteraction of bacterial protective immune responses when developing a vaccine against infection of multiple serotypes salmonella. in this study, a flagellin-deficient s. typhimurium mutant was con ...	2016	27698383
neisserial heparin binding antigen (nhba) contributes to the adhesion of neisseria meningitidis to human epithelial cells.	neisserial heparin binding antigen (nhba) is a surface-exposed lipoprotein ubiquitously expressed by neisseria meningitidis strains and an antigen of the bexsero® vaccine. nhba binds heparin through a conserved arg-rich region that is the target of two proteases, the meningococcal nalp and human lactoferrin (hlf). in this work, in vitro studies showed that recombinant nhba protein was able to bind epithelial cells and mutations of the arg-rich tract abrogated this binding. all n-terminal and c-t ...	2016	27780200
evolutionary switches between two serine codon sets are driven by selection.	serine is the only amino acid that is encoded by two disjoint codon sets so that a tandem substitution of two nucleotides is required to switch between the two sets. previously published evidence suggests that, for the most evolutionarily conserved serines, the codon set switch occurs by simultaneous substitution of two nucleotides. here we report a genome-wide reconstruction of the evolution of serine codons in triplets of closely related species from diverse prokaryotes and eukaryotes. the res ...	2016	27799560
prevalence and epidemiology of meningococcal carriage in southern ethiopia prior to implementation of menafrivac, a conjugate vaccine.	neisseria meningitidis colonizes humans and transmits mainly by asymptomatic carriage. we sought to determine the prevalence and epidemiology of meningococcal carriage in ethiopia prior to the introduction of menafrivac, a serogroup a meningococcal conjugate vaccine.	2016	27814682
the capricious nature of bacterial pathogens: phasevarions and vaccine development.	infectious diseases are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and vaccines are one of the most successful and cost-effective tools for disease prevention. one of the key considerations for rational vaccine development is the selection of appropriate antigens. antigens must induce a protective immune response, and this response should be directed to stably expressed antigens so the target microbe can always be recognized by the immune system. antigens with variable expression, due ...	2016	28018352
interstrain cooperation in meningococcal biofilms: role of autotransporters nalp and auta.	neisseria meningitidis (nm) and neisseria lactamica (nl) are commensal bacteria that live in the human nasopharynx, where they form microcolonies. in contrast to nl, nm occasionally causes blood and/or meningitis infection with often fatal consequences. here, we studied interactions between neisserial strains during biofilm formation. fluorescent strains were engineered and analyzed for growth in single- and dual-strain biofilms with confocal laser-scanning microscopy. different strains of diver ...	2017	28382026
structure of the neisseria adhesin complex protein (acp) and its role as a novel lysozyme inhibitor.	pathogenic and commensal neisseria species produce an adhesin complex protein, which was first characterised in neisseria meningitidis (nm) as a novel surface-exposed adhesin with vaccine potential. in the current study, the crystal structure of a recombinant (r)nm-acp type i protein was determined to 1.4 å resolution: the fold resembles an eight-stranded β-barrel, stabilized by a disulphide bond between the first (cys38) and last (cys121) β-strands. there are few main-chain hydrogen bonds linki ...	2017	28662181
neisseria lactamica y92-1009 complete genome sequence.	we present the high quality, complete genome assembly of neisseria lactamica y92-1009 used to manufacture an outer membrane vesicle (omv)-based vaccine, and a member of the neisseria genus. the strain is available on request from the public health england meningococcal reference unit. this gram negative, dipplococcoid bacterium is an organism of worldwide clinical interest because human nasopharyngeal carriage is related inversely to the incidence of meningococcal disease, caused by neisseria me ...	2017	28770026