Genome sequence of a Neisseria meningitidis capsule null locus strain from the clonal complex of sequence type 198.

Neisseria meningitidis is a commensal and accidental pathogen exclusively of humans. Although the production of polysaccharide capsules is considered to be essential for meningococcal virulence, there have been reports of constitutively unencapsulated strains causing invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). Here we report the genome sequence of a capsule null locus (cnl) strain of sequence type 198 (ST-198), which is found in half of the reported cases of IMD caused by cnl meningococcal strains.