Role of Neisseria meningitidis luxS in Cell-to-Cell Signaling and Bacteremic Infection.

Winzer, Klaus and Sun, Yao-hui and Green, Andrew and Delory, Marie and Blackley, David and Hardie, Kim R. and Baldwin, Thomas J. and Tang, Christoph M. (2002) Role of Neisseria meningitidis luxS in Cell-to-Cell Signaling and Bacteremic Infection. Infection and Immunity, 70 (4). pp. 2245-2248. ISSN 0019-9567

Abstract

Numerous pathogenic bacteria contain luxS, which is required for autoinducer-2 production. Here, we demonstrate that Neisseria meningitidis contains a functional copy of luxS that is necessary for full meningococcal virulence; strains with a luxS deletion are defective for bacteremia, a prerequisite of meningococcal pathogenesis.