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Infection and Immunity, June 1999, p. 2928-2934, Vol. 67, No. 6
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Deletion of porA by Recombination between Clusters of Repetitive Extragenic Palindromic Sequences in Neisseria meningitidis

A. van der Ende,* C. T. P. Hopman, and J. Dankert

Department of Medical Microbiology and Reference Laboratory for Bacterial Meningitis, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Received 19 January 1999/Returned for modification 25 February 1999/Accepted 2 April 1999

PorA is an important component in a vaccine against infection with Neisseria meningitidis. However, porA-negative meningococci were isolated from patients, thereby potentially limiting the role of PorA-mediated immunity. To analyze the mechanism by which the porA deletion occurred, the regions upstream and downstream of porA from three meningococcal strains (H44/76, H355, and 860183) were sequenced. The porA upstream region in strain 860183 contains a cluster of 22 repetitive palindromic RS3 core sequences (ATTCCC-N8-GGGAAT) and 10 RS3 core sequences (ATTCCC) in direct orientation. The cluster is flanked by neisserial repeats, so-called Correia elements, and can be subdivided into three repeats of 518 bp followed by a truncated repeat. The porA upstream region of the other two strains showed deletions, probably caused by a recombination between RS3 core sequences. The porA downstream region of H44/76 and H355 contains the IS1106 element followed by a cluster of 10 palindromic RS3 core sequences, 4 RS3 core sequences, and 1 other RS3 core sequence (GGGAAT) and is followed by a Correia element. This cluster can be subdivided into four direct repeats of 370 bp. Strain 860183 had two such repeats instead of four. Sequence analysis of the porA-negative variants indicated that the deletion of porA occurred via a recombination between two copies of the 116-bp region, containing two palindromic RS3 core sequences and a single RS3 core sequence. This region is homologous in the upstream and downstream clusters.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Medical Microbiology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 22700, 1100 DE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Phone: 31-20-5664862. Fax: 31-20-6979271. E-mail: A.VANDERENDE{at}amc.uva.nl.

Infection and Immunity, June 1999, p. 2928-2934, Vol. 67, No. 6
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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