FIG. 2.

Genetic analysis of strains lacking the fetA gene with emphasis on repeat elements. Strains Z2491 and MC58 were included as reference strains (13, 15). Strains with prefix “NM” were deduced from a recent publication describing three fetA-negative strains from the United States (10). Strains with the prefix “DE” are from the National Reference Center for Meningococci and mostly represent invasive isolates. Strains with the prefix “α” were isolated in the course of the Bavarian carriage study (4). Strain γ30 was isolated during a swabbing campaign whose results were published recently (11). Strain 10115V3B is an ST-192 capsule null locus isolate from Burkina Faso (7).