Confirmation of association of protein I serotype of Neisseria gonorrhoeae with ability to cause disseminated infection.

Previous work indicates that strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolated in Seattle, Wash., and Atlanta, Ga., show an association between serotypes 1 and 2 of protein I of the outer membrane and the ability to cause disseminated infection (T.M. Buchanan and J.F. Hildebrandt, Infect. Immun. 32:985-994, 1981). By using the same serotyping system, we confirmed the association between those serotypes and both disseminated infection and serum resistance in strains from North Carolina. Some strains of the same serotype had protein I species with different apparent molecular weights.