Clinical Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolate with a N. meningitidis porA gene and no prolyliminopeptidase activity, Sweden, 2011 – danger of false-negative genetic and culture diagnostic results

D Golparian,E Johansson,M Unemo

doi:10.2807/ese.17.09.20102-en

D Golparian, E Johansson + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.17.09.20102-en

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Journal: Eurosurveillance	Publication Date: Mar 1, 2012
Citations: 20	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Örebro University Hospital

Abstract

We describe a Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain, found in Sweden in 2011, that harbours a N. meningitidis porA gene causing false-negative results in PCRs targeting the gonococcal porA pseudogene. Furthermore, the strain had no prolyliminopeptidase (PIP) activity that many commercial biochemical kits for species verification in culture rely on. Enhanced awareness of the spread of such strains and screening for them can be crucial.

Highlights

We describe a Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain, found in Sweden in 2011, that harbours a N. meningitidis porA gene causing false-negative results in PCRs targeting the gonococcal porA pseudogene
Recently the first case of a clinical N. gonorrhoeae isolate was found in Australia, in which the gonococcal porA pseudogene was replaced with a N. meningitidis porA gene sequence, which caused a false-negative result in a gonococcal porA pseudogene PCR [6]
We describe here the identification and characteristics of a N. gonorrhoeae isolate from Europe lacking the gonococcal porA pseudogene

Summary

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Clinical Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolate with a N. meningitidis porA gene and no prolyliminopeptidase activity, Sweden, 2011 – danger of false-negative genetic and culture diagnostic results. We describe a Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain, found in Sweden in 2011, that harbours a N. meningitidis porA gene causing false-negative results in PCRs targeting the gonococcal porA pseudogene. The gonococcal porA pseudogene is possibly the most common target in in-house PCRs currently used for primary detection and/or verifying detection of N. gonorrhoeae globally This is because the pseudogene is highly conserved and has so far been considered to be present in all gonococcal strains. This report describes the identification and detailed characterisation of the second case of a N. gonorrhoeae isolate harbouring a N. meningitidis porA gene that causes false-negative results in PCRs targeting the N. gonorrhoeae porA pseudogene

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