Figure 1.

Presence of known genes associated with pathogenesis among meningococcal lineages. The presence of genes associated with pathogenesis mentioned in this review are marked as either present (gene is present in >80% of isolates from the lineage), variably present (gene is present in 20-80% of the isolates from the lineage), or absent (gene is present in <20% of isolates from the lineage). For references see text. Lineages here are defined according to the framework of Mullally et al., 2021. Where specific variants of a virulence gene/island are known, i.e. for capsular serogroup, class of pilE, pglB allele, and IgA protease cleavage type, the variant predominantly associated with each lineage is indicated. The phase-variation status and known regulators of each gene are also indicated. The known regulators of each gene and the presence of phase-variation and hypervariability are also indicated. * = genes encoding DNA repair enzymes with a known role in resistance to oxidative and nitrostative stress including: nexo, nape, nth, mutM, and dinG.