Fig. 8

Graphical summary and hypothesis relating major findings of this work and published data. The figure is not intended to give a comprehensive overview of the entire metabolism and stress responses in N. meningitidis but to illustrate pathways that link metabolism, protein sequence and gene expression differences of selected (virulence-associated) genes and the pathogenesis of IMD as described in the main text. Accordingly, genes and pathways that were highly expressed in MC58 in blood and/or that are strongly upregulated between saliva and blood in MC58 are depicted in red, and genes and pathways that are highly expressed in α522 or that are strongly upregulated between saliva and blood in α522 are depicted in green. Asterisks next to enzyme or protein names indicate that the corresponding proteins have a less than average sequence similarity (BSRP < 0.958) or are entirely missing in strain α522. Arrows with plus signs indicate (predominantly) activating regulatory interactions, and arrows with minus signs (predominantly) inhibitory regulatory interactions. For further details and abbreviations see main text. The literature cited in the figure is indicated by bracketed numerals next to the respective arrows: (1) Newcombe et al. (2005) [33], (2) Delany et al. (2006) [70], (3) Fantappie et al. (2009) [74], (4) Monaco et al. (2006) [87], (5) Huis in’t Veld et al. (2011) [72], (6) Tala et al. (2011) [86], (7) Takahashi et al. (2015) [124], (8) Gunesekere et al. [71], (9) Criss and Seifert (2012) [38], (10) Seib et al. (2006) [84], (11) Schmitt et al. (2009) [83], (12) Stevanin et al. (2007) [52], (13) Kobsar et al. (2011) [51], (14) Coureuil et al. (2014) [125], (15) Virji (2009) [49], (16) Hellerud et al. (2015) [48]