ArticleInfection and immunity2012
Loss of meningococcal PilU delays microcolony formation and attenuates virulence in vivo.
Article in Infection and immunity, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pilus-mediated co-aggregation with Lactobacillus crispatus increases meningococcal susceptibility to antimicrobial agents by interfering with microcolony formation.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Hyperpiliation, not loss of pilus retraction, reducesMicrobiology spectrum · 2025Article
- The role of PilU in the surface behaviors ofmLife · 2025Article
- Type IV pilus retraction is required formBio · 2024Article
- Vertebrate and Invertebrate Animal and New In Vitro Models for StudyingPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Neisseria genes required for persistence identified via in vivo screening of a transposon mutant library.PLoS pathogens · 2022Article
- Type IV pilus retraction enables sustained bacteremia and plays a key role in the outcome of meningococcal sepsis in a humanized mouse model.PLoS pathogens · 2021Article
- cjrABC-senB hinders survival of extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli in the bloodstream through triggering complement-mediated killing.Journal of biomedical science · 2020Article
- Commensal Neisseria cinerea impairs Neisseria meningitidis microcolony development and reduces pathogen colonisation of epithelial cells.PLoS pathogens · 2020Article
- The type IV pilus protein PilU functions as a PilT-dependent retraction ATPase.PLoS genetics · 2019Article
- Perturbing the acetylation status of the Type IV pilus retraction motor, PilT, reduces Neisseria gonorrhoeae viability.Molecular microbiology · 2018Article
- Quantification ofBio-protocol · 2018Article
- Live-cell Imaging ofBio-protocol · 2018Article
- Host cell-derived lactate functions as an effector molecule in Neisseria meningitidis microcolony dispersal.PLoS pathogens · 2017Article
- Article
- Isolation and characterization of Neisseria musculi sp. nov., from the wild house mouse.International journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology · 2016Article
- Host-Associated Genomic Features of the Novel Uncultured Intracellular Pathogen Ca. Ichthyocystis Revealed by Direct Sequencing of Epitheliocysts.Genome biology and evolution · 2016Article
- Neisseria meningitidis Polynucleotide Phosphorylase Affects Aggregation, Adhesion, and Virulence.Infection and immunity · 2016Article
- The environment of "Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis" microaggregates induces synthesis of small proteins associated with efficient infection of respiratory epithelial cells.Infection and immunity · 2015Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of sepsis and bacterial meningitis worldwide. This bacterium expresses type IV pili (Tfp), which mediate important virulence traits such as the formation of bacterial aggregates, host cell adhesion, twitching motility, and DNA uptake. The meningococcal PilT protein is a hexameric ATPase that mediates pilus retraction. The PilU protein is produced from the pilT-pilU operon and shares a high degree of homology with PilT. The function of PilT in Tfp biology has been studied extensively, whereas the role of PilU remains poorly understood. Here we show that pilU mutants have delayed microcolony formation on host epithelial cells compared to the wild type, indicating that bacterium-bacterium interactions are affected. In normal human serum, the pilU mutant survived at a higher rate than that for wild-type bacteria. However, in a murine model of disease, mice infected with the pilT mutant demonstrated significantly reduced bacterial blood counts and survived at a higher rate than that for mice infected with the wild type. Infection of mice with the pilU mutant resulted in a trend of lower bacteremia, and still a significant increase in survival, than that of the wild type. In conclusion, these data suggest that PilU promotes timely microcolony formation and that both PilU and PilT are required for full bacterial virulence.
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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.