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.