Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Apr 15.
Published in final edited form as: Science. 2009 Jun 11;325(5936):83–87. doi: 10.1126/science.1173196

Figure 1. Neisseria meningitidis recruits ectopic junction-like domains beneath colonies.

Figure 1

(A) VE-cadherin (green), the main component of the endothelial AJ, co-localized with actin (red) beneath N. meningitidis colony (upper panel). Two other AJ components: p120-catenin and β-catenin, and three components of the TJ: ZO-1, ZO-2 and claudin-5 are recruited under N. meningitidis colonies (lower Panel). Arrow indicates a bacterial colony. Scale bars: 10μm. (B) YFP-tagged Par6 (par6-YFP) or myc-tagged Par3 (par3-myc), both green, are recruited underneath N. meningitidis colonies where they co-localize with actin (red). Areas outlined in white indicate the presence of a N. meningitidis colony. Scale bars: 10μm. The formation of these ectopic early junction-like domains is not found underneath all N. meningitidis colonies. Signaling underneath bacterial microcolonies required a minimal number of 20 bacteria per colony to be detected by immunofluorescence, with around 40–50% of microcolonies containing 40–50 bacteria. The average number of colonies signalling after 2 hours of infection is 40 %.