Table 3 Pathogen-specific virulence genes absent in N. lactamica.

No hybridization on microarray^a	*N. lactamica* genome sequence results^b	Final results
ssa 1	Present, but divergent	Present
pilC	Present, but divergent	Present
pilD	Present, possibly divergent in strains tested	Present
pglD	Present, but divergent	Present
pglF	Present, possibly divergent in strains tested	Present
dca/pptA	Absent. The equivalent region contains an alternative hypothetical gene.	Absent
ABC transport (NMB1880)	Absent in genome sequence	Absent
TonB-dependent receptor, NMB1882	Absent in genome sequence	Absent
virG	Absent. The equivalent region contains an alternative hypothetical gene.	Absent
iga encoding IgA protease	Absent in genome sequence	Absent
hemolysin, NMB1646	Absent. The equivalent region contains alternative gene sequences.	Absent

^aVirulence-associated genes that are present in all strains of the pathogenic Neisseria spp., but did not produce positive microarray hybridizations with N. lactamica.
^bApproximately half of these genes are present in the unpublished genome sequence of N. lactamica, where sequence divergence from the pathogenic sequence can be observed.

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