Table 1.

Comparative overview of the sequenced meningococcal genomes.

Strain	Z2491	MC58	FAM18	053442	α14	α153	α275
Molecular typing
Serogroup	A	B	C	C	cnl	29E	W-135
Sequence type	4	74	11	4821	53	60	22
Clonal complex	ST-4	ST-32	ST-11	ST-4821	ST-53	ST-60	ST-22
Frequency in carriersa (%)	0.0	5.0	1.0	0.0	7.2	3.9	4.6
Frequency in casesb (%)	0.0	23.8	18.1	0.0	0.0	2.7	0.4
General information
No. of contigs (>2 kb)	1	1	1	1	1	87	133
Contigs/genome size (bp)	2184406	2272351	2194961	2153416	2145295	2134469	2266686
G + C content (%)	51.8	51.5	51.6	51.7	52.0	51.6	51.2
GenBank accession	AL157959	AE002098	AM421808	CP000381	AM889136	AM889137	AM889138
Functional RNAs
Number of tRNAs	58	59	59	59	58	≥ 50	≥ 50
Number of rRNA operons	4	4	4	4	4	≥ 1	≥ 1
Selected repeats
DUSc	1892	1910	1888	1858	1851	1831	1862
dRS3d	672	689	656	725	646	710	692
dRS3 (Nf1 subtype)e	303	316	283	327	269	322	307
CEf	270	261	n. d.	n. d.	269	n. d.	n. d.
Coding sequences
Putative number	1993	2063	1975	2020	1987	≥1814	≥7
Average CDS length (bp)	902	871	918	853	884	899	870
COGs (%)	68	68	n. d.	n. d.	78	86	85
Coding area (%)	78.9	79.1	80.2	80.1	81.8	≥76.4	≥74.7
Putative pseudogenes	84	92	58	61	70	≥59	≥75
CDS with low G + Cg	77	76	70	122	112	≥51	≥52
New genesh	57	46	9	12	58	≥2	≥42

^aFrequency of clonal complex in 822 carrier isolates as given in [70].

^bFrequency of clonal complexes in 525 disease isolates during the time period 2000–2002 in Germany, characterised by the European Meningococcal MLST Centre, Oxford, UK.

^cThe core DNA uptake sequence is GCCGTCTGAA.

^dThe dRS3 repeat sequence pattern is ATTCCC(N₈)GGGAAT.

^eThe dRS3 repeat type targeted by the prophage Nf1 has the sequence ATTCCCRCCTRCGCGGRAAK [27].

^fCorreia repeat elements.

^gDefined as genes with a G + C content less than the average G + C content of the CDSs in the respective genome minus two standard deviations.

^hDefined as genes that have no hits in other genomes in TBLASTN comparisons.