Expression of capsule biosynthesis genes.

<p>A: Relative levels of <i>siaA</i> (black bars) and <i>ctrA</i> (white bars) mRNA transcripts measured by qrtRT-PCR. P<0.005 (*) for differences in <i>ctrA</i> mRNA levels in IS-8+ and iIS+69+ versus the controls, using Student's <i>t</i> test. B: β-galactosidase activity was determined for <i>siaA</i> translational fusions. C denotes a control without an IGR. Results are average of three independent experiments, and error bars indicate the standard deviation (SD).</p

Genetic relatedness between STs within cc269.

<p>Neighbor-net constructed from the concatenation of the seven MLST housekeeping genes of <i>N. meningitidis </i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009413#pone.0009413-Maiden1" target="_blank">[4]</a>. The major groupings (indicated with green, black, and yellow circles) represent the number of allelic differences (1, 2 and 3 respectively) from the core ST-269 allelic profile. The tree was made using the Split-Tree4 software <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009413#pone.0009413-Huson1" target="_blank">[29]</a>.</p

Presence of IS1301 in the IGR of MenB and MenC isolates from different clonal complexes.

<p>Presence of IS1301 in the IGR of MenB and MenC isolates from different clonal complexes.</p

Polymorphic IGRs do not influence capsule expression or complement resistance.

<p>A: Relative amount of capsule detected by FACS. Results are shown as mean fluorescense index (MFI; calculated as the geometric mean multiplied by the percentage of positive cells). B: Survival in 8.33% human serum after 1 hour incubation at 37(C. Experiments were performed in duplicate on at least three independent occasions, and error bars indicate the SD. White bars represent isogenic control strains without IS<i>1301</i> in the IGR.</p

Presence of IS<i>1301</i> in the IGR of carriage isolates and disease isolates.

<p>Carriage (C) and disease (D) isolates were analysed for the presence of IS<i>1301</i> in the IGR depending on the numbers of loci the STs share with ST-269. Black bars represent strains with IS<i>1301</i> in the IGR and white bars show the frequency of isolates without IS<i>1301</i> in the IGR. Numbers above bars indicate the total number of isolates.</p

Presence of IS<i>1301</i> in the IGR of UK disease and carriage isolates from South East England.

a<p>P-value was calculated using Fischer's exact test.</p>b<p>NG, non-groupable.</p

Additional file 1: Figure S1. of Molecular characterization of invasive capsule null Neisseria meningitidis in South Africa

Nucleotide sequences of capsule null locus (cnl) alleles identified in invasive and carried Neisseria meningitidis isolates analyzed in this study (n = 93), PubMLST Neisseria database locus identifier: NEIS2743. (TIFF 570 kb

Additional file 4: Table S3. of Molecular characterization of invasive capsule null Neisseria meningitidis in South Africa

Putative virulence loci (n = 117) analyzed in 51 carriage and 14 invasive capsule null meningococci, adapted from Schoen et al. [30]. (XLSX 13 kb