Interactions of pathogenic Neisseria with host cells. Is it possible to assemble the puzzle?

Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae are human pathogens that h ave to interact with mucosa and/or cellular barriers for their life cycles to progress. Even though they both give rise to dramatically different dise ases, the use of in vitro models has shown that most of the mechanisms medi ating cellular interactions are common to N. meningitidis and N. gonorrhoea e. This suggests that bacterial cell interactions may be essential not only for pathogenesis but also for other aspects of the bacterial life cycle th at are common to both N. meningitidis and N. gonorrhoeae, This manuscript w ill review the most recent developments concerning the mechanisms mediating cellular interaction of pathogenic Neisseria and will then try to put them into the perspective of pathogenesis and bacterial life cycle.