Development of a robust and quantitative high-throughput screening method for assessing phenotypic variation in large Neisseria meningitidis isolate collections

Genome-wide association studies are a powerful approach for identifying determinants of disease. For infectious diseases, high throughput assays are required for measuring the variance in multiple virulence-related phenotypes of large bacterial isolate collections and for association of this phenotypic variance with genotype. The primary limiting factors are cost, effectiveness and a standardized inoculum. A method was developed to create an inoculum array of multiple isolates that could be used for a series of high-throughput multi-isolate phenotypic investigations in a laboratory setting. A key starting point was the standardisation of the inoculum by production of identical batches of each isolate from cells grown to mid-log phase. Cultures with pre-determined optical densities were aliquoted in set patterns into multiple multi-well plates containing 50% glycerol and stored at -80 °C. Prior to a specific assay, an inoculum plate was defrosted and subjected to a brief period of incubation. Control strains can be placed on each plate in order to control for intra-assay variability. A high throughput screen is described in detail for quantification of biofilm formation. This example utilised the crystal violet staining method and multi-assay stock plates containing 16 meningococcal isolates. • Multi-assay stock plate of exponentially growing isolates is cost-effective and simple to implement in a laboratory setting. • This method would predict realistic standard deviations for multiple isolates in phenotypic assays and generate data for performance of power calculations for genotyping. • This method has the potential to identify both known and unknown genetic determinants of phenotypic variability for each tested isolate when paired with genetic analysis of whole genome sequencing data

Phase Variation of NadA in Invasive Neisseria meningitidis Isolates Impacts on Coverage Estimates for 4C-MenB, a MenB Vaccine.

A recombinant NadA protein is one of the four major protective antigens of 4C-MenB (Bexsero), a vaccine developed for serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis (MenB). The meningococcal antigen typing system (MATS) is utilized as a high-throughput assay for assessing the invasive MenB strain coverage of 4C-MenB. Where present, the nadA gene is subject to phase-variable changes in transcription due to a 5'TAAA repeat tract located in a regulatory region. The promoter-containing intergenic region (IGR) sequences and 5'TAAA repeat numbers were determined for 906 invasive meningococcal disease isolates possessing the nadA gene. Exclusion of the 5'TAAA repeats reduced the number of IGR alleles from 82 to 23. Repeat numbers were associated with low and high levels of NadA expression by Western blotting and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Low-expression repeat numbers were present in 83% of 179 MenB isolates with NadA-2/3 or NadA-1 peptide variants and 68% of 480 MenW ST-11 complex isolates with NadA-2/3 peptide variants. For isolates with vaccine-compatible NadA variants, 93% of MATS-negative isolates were associated with low-expression repeat numbers, whereas 63% of isolates with MATS relative potency (RP) scores above the 95% confidence interval for the positive bactericidal threshold had high-expression repeat numbers. Analysis of 5'TAAA repeat numbers has potential as a rapid, high-throughput method for assessing strain coverage for the NadA component of 4C-MenB. A key application will be assessing coverage in meningococcal disease cases where confirmation is by PCR only and MATS cannot be applied

Potentiation of phase variation in multiple outer membrane proteins during spread of the hyperinvasive Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W ST-11 lineage.

BACKGROUND: Since 2009, increases in invasive meningococcal disease have occurred in the United Kingdom due to a sub-lineage of the Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W ST-11 clonal complex (the 'original-UK' strain). In 2013, a descendent sub-strain (the '2013-strain') became the dominant disease-causing variant. Multiple outer membrane proteins (OMP) of meningococci are subject to phase-variable switches in expression due to hypermutable simple sequence repeats (SSR). We investigated whether alterations in phase-variable genes may have impacted on the relative prevalence of the original-UK and 2013 sub-strains using multiple disease and carriage isolates. METHODS: Repeat numbers were determined by either bioinformatic analysis of whole-genome sequencing data or PCR-amplification and sizing of fragments from genomic DNA extracts. Immunoblotting or sequence-translation identified expression states. RESULTS: Significant increases in repeat number were detected between the original-UK and 2013-strains in genes encoding PorA, NadA and two Opa variants. Invasive and carriage isolates exhibited similar repeat numbers but the absence of pilC gene expression was frequently associated with disease. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated repeat numbers in OMP genes of the 2013-strain are indicative of higher phase variation rates suggesting that rapid expansion of this strain was due to a heightened ability to evade host immune responses during transmission and asymptomatic carriage