Functional Annotation and Classification of the Hypothetical Proteins of <i>Neisseria meningitides</i> H44/76

Abstract

Neisseria meningitides is a parasitic gram-negative bacterium of the family Neisseriaceae (Proteobacteria) and it causes many human diseases including meningitidis and septicemia. One of its strains, H44/76, has natural transformation capacity, thus it is important to identify possible novel drug targets and to develop serogroup B vaccines against this opportunist pathogen. In the complete genome of N. meningitides strain H44/76, there are 1961 coding genes out of which 544 encodes for hypothetical proteins (HPs). Due to their less homology and relatedness to other known proteins, HPs may serve as potential drug targets. We performed extensive functional analysis of these HPs with the help of Bioinformatics tools and assigned functions to 235 HPs, out of which 202 were annotated with high confidence whereas 33 with less confidence. In this study, we have used a combination of latest tools to acquire information about the conserved regions, families, pathways, interactions, localization and virulence related to a particular protein. We also categorized these proteins as transporters, regulators, enzymes, binding proteins, virulent proteins. The outcome of this intensive study may help in the comprehensive understanding of pathogenesis, drug resistance, adaptability to host, epidemic causes and drug discovery for treatment of the diseases.