Abstract
Some normally innocuous bacteria can turn into serious pathogens. It seems that one such species, Neisseria meningitidis, uses three RNA-based thermosensors to escape the immune response of its human host. See Letter p.237 The human pathogen Neisseria meningitidis, which can cause septicaemia and meningitis, has evolved various defensive mechanisms including a polysaccharide capsule that aids survival in extracellular fluids. Here Christoph Tang and colleagues demonstrate that capsule expression in N. meningitidis is regulated by an RNA thermosensor located in the 5′-untranslated region of the messenger RNA for three genes required for capsule biosynthesis. The authors suggest that the bacteria sense the inflammatory status of the nasopharyngeal mucosa by detecting the temperature rise associated with inflammation and recruitment of immune effectors. The primarily commensal N. meningitidis is then able to bolster its own defences to resist host reactions to coinfecting viral pathogens such as such as influenza.
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