Affiliation: | (1) The Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research and Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3SY Oxford, UK;(2) Molecular Infectious Diseases Group, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital,Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, OX3 9DS Oxford, UK |
Abstract: | Background DNA adenine methyltransferase (Dam) activity is absent in many, but not all, disease isolates of Neisseria meningitidis, as a consequence of the insertion of a restriction endonuclease-encoding gene, the 'dam replacing gene' (drg) at the dam locus. Here, we report the results of a survey to assess the prevalence of drg in a globally representative panel of disease-associated meningococci. |