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Background: PorA, fetA and fHbp are three antigen encoding genes useful for meningococcal typing and FHbp is an important component of meningococcal B vaccines., Methods: We performed sequence analysis of meningococcal porA, fetA and fHbp genes on 128 isolates from Western Australia, relating results to age, gender, race and geographic region., Results: We found predominantly PorA subtypes P1.22,14-16 (n = 23) and P1.7-2,4 (n = 19); FetA subtypes F1-5 (n = 41), F3-6 (n = 11), F5-1 (n = 10), F5-2 (n = 9), F5-5 (n = 8), F3-3 (n = 8); and FHbp variant groups 1 (n = 65) and 2 (n = 44). PorA P1.22,14-16 and FHbp variant group 2 were associated with younger age and aboriginality., Conclusions: FHbp modular groups of the bivalent recombinant FHbp vaccine and the multicomponent 4CMenB vaccine make up 8.3% and 47.7% respectively of the examined serogroup B isolates from 2000-2011, however to estimate vaccine efficacy requires an account of all vaccine antigens and their levels of expression.

Australia is experiencing a prolonged epidemic of pertussis that began in 2008. A total of 194 Bordetella pertussis isolates collected from 2008 through 2010 were typed by single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis, by multilocus variable number tandem repeats analysis, and by fim3, prn, and ptxP sequence analyses. Strains with 2 closely related SNP profiles carrying prn2 and ptxP3 from the recently emerged SNP cluster I predominated. The data suggest increasing selection among the B. pertussis population in Australia in favor of strains carrying prn2 and ptxP3 under the pressure of acellular vaccine-induced immunity.

Copper- and zinc-containing superoxide dismutases ([Cu,Zn]-SODs) are generally considered almost exclusively eukaryotic enzymes, protecting the cytosol and extracellular compartments of higher organisms from damage by oxygen free-radicals. The recent description of a few examples of bacterial forms of the enzyme, located in the periplasm of different Gram-negative micro-organisms, prompted a re-evaluation of this general perception. A PCR-based approach has been developed and used successfully to identify bacterial genes encoding [Cu,Zn]-SOD in a wide range of important human and animal pathogens-members of the Haemophilus, Actinobacillus and Pasteurella (HAP) group, and Neisseria meningitidis. Comparison of [Cu,Zn]-SOD peptide sequences found in Haemophilus ducreyi, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, Pasteurella multocida, and N. meningitidis with previously described bacterial proteins and examples of eukaryotic [Cu,Zn]-SOD has shown that the bacterial proteins constitute a distinct family apparently widely separated in evolutionary terms from the eukaryotic examples. The widespread occurrence of [Cu,Zn]-SOD in the periplasm of bacterial pathogens, appropriately located to dismute exogenously derived superoxide radical anions, suggests that this enzyme may play a role in the interactive biology of organisms with their hosts and so contribute to their capacity to cause disease.