About the Authors

Emmanuelle Bille

Contributed equally to this work with: Emmanuelle Bille, Roisin Ure

Affiliations Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Paris, France, Unité de pathogénie des infections systémiques, Université Paris Descartes, Faculté de Médecine, Paris, France, Laboratoire de Microbiologie, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris, France

Roisin Ure

Contributed equally to this work with: Emmanuelle Bille, Roisin Ure

Current address: Scottish Meningococcal and Pneumococcal Reference Laboratory, Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Affiliation Department of Zoology, Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen research, Oxford, United Kingdom

Stephen J. Gray

Affiliation Meningococcal Reference Unit, Health Protection Agency, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester, United Kingdom

Edward B. Kaczmarski

Affiliation Meningococcal Reference Unit, Health Protection Agency, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester, United Kingdom

Noel D. McCarthy

Affiliation Department of Zoology, Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen research, Oxford, United Kingdom

Xavier Nassif

Affiliations Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Paris, France, Unité de pathogénie des infections systémiques, Université Paris Descartes, Faculté de Médecine, Paris, France, Laboratoire de Microbiologie, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris, France

Martin C. J. Maiden

Affiliation Department of Zoology, Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen research, Oxford, United Kingdom

Colin R. Tinsley

colin.tinsley@grignon.inra.fr

Affiliations Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Paris, France, Unité de pathogénie des infections systémiques, Université Paris Descartes, Faculté de Médecine, Paris, France, Laboratoire de Microbiologie et Génétique Moléculaire, UMR AgroParisTech/INRA 1238/CNRS 2585, AgroParisTech, Centre de Grignon, Thiverval-Grignon, France

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: EB RU SG EK NDM XN MCJM CT. Performed the experiments: EB RU CT. Analyzed the data: EB RU SG EK NDM XN MCJM CT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SG EK. Wrote the paper: EB NDM XN MCJM CT.