TABLE 1.

Characteristics of Neisseria meningitidis strains lacking the fetA gene^a

Strain	Epidemiology of isolate	Serogroup	Serogenogroup	Allele of PorA variable regionb:		ST	Clonal complex
				1	2
DE8926	Invasive	C	C	5	2	8	8
DE9260	Invasive	C	C	5-1	10-8	11	11
DE9301	Invasive	C	C	5-1	10-8	11	11
DE9489	Invasive	B	B	22-1	14	35	35
DE9516	Invasive	B	B	22	14	162	162
DE9598	Invasive	B	B	18-1	3	4615
DE9734	Invasive	B	B	22-1	14	35	35
DE9848	Invasive	B	B	19	15	44	41/44
DE9872	Invasive	B	B	7-2	13-2	180	41/44
DE10260	Invasive	B	B	7	16	32	32
DE10383	Invasive	B	B	17	9	5802
DE9313	Carriage	Y	Y	5-8	10-4	785	92
DE9991	Carriage	Acapsular	X	7-1	1	5799	22
DE10920	Carriage	*	*	22	9	5901	35
γ30	Carriage	Acapsular	Y	5-2	10-1	23	23
10115V3B	Carriage	Acapsular	cnl	18-11	42	192
α43	Carriage	Acapsular	C	22-1	14	806	35
α53	Carriage	Acapsular	C	12-1		35	35
α58	Carriage	B	B	17-1	23	1132	35
α193	Carriage	Acapsular	B	18-1	3	799
α323	Carriage	Acapsular	B	7-2	16	801	32
α458	Carriage	Acapsular	cnl	18	25-19	845
α496	Carriage	Acapsular	cnl	7	30-1	53	53
α501	Carriage	Acapsular	C	22-1	14	810	35
α604	Carriage	*	*	22-1	14	160	35
α718	Carriage	B	B	7-2	16	32	32
α725	Carriage	Acapsular	B	7-1	1	44	41/44
α788	Carriage	*	*	22-1	14	35	35

^aStrains include 11 invasive isolates (prefix “DE,” National Reference Laboratory for Meningococci) and 17 carriage isolates (prefix “α,” Bavarian carriage study [4]; prefix “γ,” Sangerhausen carriage study [11]; strain 10115V3B, Burkina Faso [7]). cnl, capsule null locus (3); *, not serogroup and serogenogroup B, C, W-135, and Y, as determined by slide agglutination and specific PCR, respectively.

^bAllele assignment was achieved by comparison with the PorA database at www.neisseria.org.