A bacteriophage hitchhiker may turn a harmless bacterium into a meningitis-causing menace, according to Bille and colleagues on page 1905. Neisseria meningitidis—a frequent resident of the human upper respiratory tract—may become a killer if it contains this phage integrated into its chromosome.

An eight-kilobase genetic island encodes an integrated bacteriophage that is associated with disease in hyperinvasive strains of N. meningitidis.

N. meningitidis is usually a commensal bacterium that lives in the upper respiratory tract, most often without incident. However, certain “hyperinvasive” strains of N. meningitidis can occasionally invade the blood stream and cross the blood–brain barrier, triggering outbreaks of life-threatening meningitis. Several bacterial factors are required for bacterial virulence, including the polysaccharides that form the bacterial capsule and the type IV pilus adhesin protein. But these structures are widely distributed among meningococcal strains, including those that do not cause illness, suggesting...

The Rockefeller University Press
2005
The Rockefeller University Press
2005
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