ArticlePLoS pathogens2009
A novel phase variation mechanism in the meningococcus driven by a ligand-responsive repressor and differential spacing of distal promoter elements.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 86 citations in OpenAlex.
- Non-peptide dysbiosis metabolites reprogram a peptide quorum-sensing receptor to induce sustained predation in beneficial streptococci.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Accurate detection of tandem repeats exposes ubiquitous reuse of biological sequences.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Terminal complement complexes with or without C9 potentiate antimicrobial activity againstmBio · 2025Article
- Variable disruption of epithelial monolayers byMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2023Article
- Genotypic Characterization ofTransboundary and emerging diseases · 2023Article
- Product review on the IMD serogroup B vaccine Bexsero®.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2022Article
- The Host-Pathogen Interactions and Epicellular Lifestyle ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Review
- Nucleoid-associated proteins shape chromatin structure and transcriptional regulation across the bacterial kingdom.Transcription · 2021Review
- Characterization of the MurT/GatD complex inJAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2021Article
- Meningococcal core and accessory phasomes vary by clonal complex.Microbial genomics · 2020Article
- Single Domain Antibodies Targeting Receptor Binding Pockets of NadA Restrain Adhesion ofFrontiers in molecular biosciences · 2020Article
- Moraxella catarrhalis phase-variable loci show differences in expression during conditions relevant to disease.PloS one · 2020Article
- Virulence Factors of Meningitis-Causing Bacteria: Enabling Brain Entry across the Blood-Brain Barrier.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Review
- Diversity, versatility and complexity of bacterial gene regulation mechanisms: opportunities and drawbacks for applications in synthetic biology.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2019Review
- Phase Variation of NadA in Invasive Neisseria meningitidis Isolates Impacts on Coverage Estimates for 4C-MenB, a MenB Vaccine.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2018Article
- Article
- The primary transcriptome of Neisseria meningitidis and its interaction with the RNA chaperone Hfq.Nucleic acids research · 2017Article
- Transcriptomic buffering of cryptic genetic variation contributes to meningococcal virulence.BMC genomics · 2017Article
- Host cell-derived lactate functions as an effector molecule in Neisseria meningitidis microcolony dispersal.PLoS pathogens · 2017Article
- Quantum changes in Helicobacter pylori gene expression accompany host-adaptation.DNA research : an international journal for rapid publication of reports on genes and genomes · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Phase variable expression, mediated by high frequency reversible changes in the length of simple sequence repeats, facilitates adaptation of bacterial populations to changing environments and is frequently important in bacterial virulence. Here we elucidate a novel phase variable mechanism for NadA, an adhesin and invasin of Neisseria meningitidis. The NadR repressor protein binds to operators flanking the phase variable tract and contributes to the differential expression levels of phase variant promoters with different numbers of repeats likely due to different spacing between operators. We show that IHF binds between these operators, and may permit looping of the promoter, allowing interaction of NadR at operators located distally or overlapping the promoter. The 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid, a metabolite of aromatic amino acid catabolism that is secreted in saliva, induces NadA expression by inhibiting the DNA binding activity of the repressor. When induced, only minor differences are evident between NadR-independent transcription levels of promoter phase variants and are likely due to differential RNA polymerase contacts leading to altered promoter activity. Our results suggest that NadA expression is under both stochastic and tight environmental-sensing regulatory control, both mediated by the NadR repressor, and may be induced during colonization of the oropharynx where it plays a major role in the successful adhesion and invasion of the mucosa. Hence, simple sequence repeats in promoter regions may be a strategy used by host-adapted bacterial pathogens to randomly switch between expression states that may nonetheless still be induced by appropriate niche-specific signals.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.