Table 1.

Prevalence and distribution of class I and class II pilE genes of N. meningitidis strains isolated in China

pilE	No.of isolates	Clonal complex (CC)	Serogroup
Class I	60	CC4821(n = 34)	B (n = 6), C (n = 26), W135  (n = 1), X (n = 1)
		UA (n = 16)*	B (n = 9), C (n = 5), NG (n = 2)
		Five other clonal  complexes (n = 10)†	B (n = 5), C (n = 1), W135  (n = 3), X (n = 1)
Class II	71	CC1 (n = 11)	A (n = 11)
		CC5 (n = 44)	A (n = 37), C (n = 7)‡
		CC11 (n = 10)	B (n = 4), C (n = 1),  W135 (n = 5)
		CC8 (n = 1) and  ST5642 (n = 5)§	B (n = 6)

^*UA, Unassigned to any currently known clonal complex.

^†Five other clonal complexes contain CC103 (n = 1), CC174 (n = 3), CC198 (n = 2), CC32 (n = 2) and CC41/44 (n = 2).

^‡Seven ST7 serogroup C strains were confirmed to have undergone capsular switching from serogroup A ST7 strains [27].

^§Five ST5642 strains exhibited MLST allele profiles similar to CC8, and the sequences of class II pilE genes were identical to the strain of CC8.