Pre_GI: SWBIT SVG BLASTN

Query: NC_010120:144000 Neisseria meningitidis 053442, complete genome

Lineage: Neisseria meningitidis; Neisseria; Neisseriaceae; Neisseriales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria

General Information: Causes septicemia and meningitis. The second of two pathogenic Neisseria, this organism causes septicemia and is the leading cause of life-threatening meningitis (inflammation of the meninges, the membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord) in children. This organism typically residies in the nasopharynx cavity but can invade the respiratory epthelial barrier, cross into the bloodstream and the blood brain barrier, and cause inflammation of the meninges. Pathogenicity factors include the surface proteins (porins and opacity proteins), and the type IV pilus (which is also found in Neisseria gonorrhoeae). Pathogenicity factors include the surface proteins (porins and opacity proteins), and the type IV pilus (which is also found in Neisseria gonorrhoeae). This organism, like Neisseria gonorrhoeae, is naturally competent, and protein complexes at the cell surface recognize the uptake signal sequence in extracellular DNA, an 8mer that is found at high frequency in Neisseria chromosomal DNA.

Subject: NC_002696:2829002 Caulobacter crescentus CB15, complete genome

Lineage: Caulobacter vibrioides; Caulobacter; Caulobacteraceae; Caulobacterales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria

General Information: Bacterium that undergoes asymmetric cell division and differentiation. Caulobacter vibroides, also known as Caulobacter crescentus, inhabits aquatic environments and plays an important part in biogeochemical cycling of organic nutrients. This bacterium undergoes an unusual developmental cycle in which a swarming motile cell becomes a stalked cell that is attached to a solid surface. The stalked cell then undergoes asymmetric cell division and produces one flagellated motile daughter cell and one stalked daughter cell. Thus, the asymmetric processes in this organism provide useful models for differentiation and development. This organism also contains a number of energy-dependent transport system, presumably enabling growth in the substrate-sparse aquatic environments that it lives in.