Alan Calder,Lori A.S. Snyder
Diversity of the type VI secretion systems in the Neisseria spp
Type 6 secretion system,Type VI secretion system,T6SS,Toxin antitoxin system,Neisseria spp,Commensal Neisseria
Complete Type VI Secretion Systems were identified in the genome sequence data of Neisseria subflava isolates sourced from throat swabs of human volunteers. The previous report was the first to describe two complete Type VI Secretion Systems in these isolates, both of which were distinct in terms of their gene organization and sequence homology. Since publication of the first report, Type VI Secretion System subtypes have been identified in Neisseria spp. The characteristics of each type in N. subflava are further investigated here and in the context of the other Neisseria spp., including identification of the lineages containing the different types and subtypes. Type VI Secretion Systems use VgrG for delivery of toxin effector proteins; several copies of vgrG and associated effector / immunity pairs are present in Neisseria spp. Based on sequence similarity between strains and species, these core Type VI Secretion System genes, vgrG, and effector / immunity genes may diversify via horizontal gene transfer, an instrument for gene acquisition and repair in Neisseria spp.
Diversity of the type VI secretion systems in the Neisseria spp

Complete Type VI Secretion Systems were identified in the genome sequence data of Neisseria subflava isolates sourced from throat swabs of human volunteers. The previous report was the first to describe two complete Type VI Secretion Systems in these isolates, both of which were distinct in terms of their gene organization and sequence homology. Since publication of the first report, Type VI Secretion System subtypes have been identified in Neisseria spp. The characteristics of each type in N. subflava are further investigated here and in the context of the other Neisseria spp., including identification of the lineages containing the different types and subtypes. Type VI Secretion Systems use VgrG for delivery of toxin effector proteins; several copies of vgrG and associated effector / immunity pairs are present in Neisseria spp. Based on sequence similarity between strains and species, these core Type VI Secretion System genes, vgrG, and effector / immunity genes may diversify via horizontal gene transfer, an instrument for gene acquisition and repair in Neisseria spp.

Details for the PubMLST commensal Neisseria spp isolates can be found in (Table S1, available with the online version of this article). Sequence data for commensal Neisseria spp. investigated are available in GenBank under the following accession numbers: Neisseria subflava strains M18660 (NZ_CP031251; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_CP031251.1); C2011020198 (NZ_POXM00000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POXM00000000.1); C2011009653 (NZ_POXL00000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POXL00000000.1); ATCC 49275 (NZ_CP039887; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_CP039887.1); NJ9703 (NZ_ACEO00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_ACEO00000000.2); C2005001510 (NZ_POWU00000000; url –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POWU00000000.1); C2009010520 (NZ_POXD00000000; url –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POXD00000000.1); C2011004960 (NZ_POXK00000000; url –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POXK00000000.1); Neisseria perflava strains UMB0023 (NZ_PKJQ00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_PKJQ00000000.1); UMB0210 (NZ_PKJP01000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_PKJP00000000.1); Neisseria flavescens strains CDNF2 (NZ_LAEI01000000; url –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_LAEI00000000.1); N13 (NZ_CAABZZ010000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_CAABZZ000000000.1); N57 (NZ_CAACAD010000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_CAACAD000000000.1); Neisseria elongata strains M15910 (NZ_CP031255; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_CP031255); C2013010062 (NZ_POXS01000000; url –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POXS00000000.1); C2010010207 (NZ_POXH01000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POXH00000000.1); 404_NMEN (NZ_JVIM01000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_JVIM00000000.1); 431_NMEN (NZ_JVHH01000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_JVHH00000000.1); N. mucosa strains FDAARGOS_260 (NZ_CP020452; url –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_CP020452); ATCC 19696 (CP028150; url –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/CP028150); CCH7 A10 (NZ_LSIR01000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_LSIR00000000.1); NCTC 10774 (NZ_UGRT01000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_UGRT00000000.1); ATCC 25996 (NZ_ACDX02000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_ACDX00000000.2); N32 (NZ_CAACAC010000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_CAACAC000000000.1); C2004002444 (NZ_POWT01000000; url – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POWT00000000.1); C2008000159 (NZ_POWX01000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POWX00000000.1); Neisseria sicca strains ATCC 29256 (NZ_ACKO02000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_ACKO00000000); DSM 17713 (NZ_CP059566; url -https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_CP059566); C2010005502 (NZ_POXG01000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POXG00000000.1); UMB0321 (NZ_PKJO01000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_PKJO00000000.1); VK64 (NZ_AJMT00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_AJMT00000000.1); C2014002478 (NZ_POXX00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POXX00000000.1); DE0496 (NZ_VDQK00000000; url-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_VDQK00000000.1); DE0493 (NZ_VDQM00000000; url-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_VDQM00000000.1); DE0367 (NZ_VDZJ00000000; url-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_VDZJ00000000.1); N. macacae strains MGYG-HGUT-01381 (NZ_CABKQF000000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_CABKQF000000000); ATCC 33926 (AFQE01000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/AFQE00000000.1); Neisseria bergeri strains C2008000328 (NZ_POWY00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POWY00000000.1); C2008000329 (NZ_POWZ00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POWZ00000000.1); M40553 (NZ_QQKO00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_QQKO00000000.1); M40463 (NZ_QQHX00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_QQHX00000000.1); Neisseria polysaccharea strains C2013011231 (NZ_POXT00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POXT00000000.1); NS342 (NZ_AEPH00000000; url-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_AEPH00000000.1); Neisseria dumasiana strains 114 725 (NZ_MTAA00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_MTAA00000000.1); 124 861 (NZ_MTAB00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_MTAB00000000.1); 93 087 (NZ_MTAC00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_MTAC00000000.1); Neisseria zoodegmatis strains NCTC12229 (NZ_UGRS00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_UGRS00000000.1); NCTC12230 (NZ_LT906434; url -https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_LT906434); DSM 21643 (NZ_MTBM00000000; url -https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_MTBM00000000.1); Neisseria canis strains ATCC 14687 (NZ_MTBL00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_MTBL00000000.1); NCTC10296 (NZ_LR134313; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_LR134313); Neisseria wadsworthii strains DSM 22245 (NZ_CP059565; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_CP059565); 9715 (NZ_AGAZ00000000; url -https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_AGAZ00000000.1); Neisseria animaloris strains C2015003240 (NZ_POYC00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POYC00000000.1); DSM 21642 (NZ_MTBN00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_MTBN00000000.1); C2012029644 (NZ_POXR00000000; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_POXR00000000.1); Neisseria zalophi strain ATCC BAA-2455 (NZ_CP031700; url - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NZ_CP031700); The authors confirm all supporting data, code and protocols have been provided within the article or through supplementary data files.

Commensal Neisseria spp. have been shown to outcompete pathogens of the same family using several different mechanisms including the Type VI Secretion System (T6SS). Here are described two different T6SS types across Neisseriaceae ; T6SS-A and T6SS-B as well as the T6SS-Bi subtype of T6SS-B. An array of different putative effectors have been identified that include LysM domain proteins, hydrolases, phospholipases, and nucleases that are thought to be anti-bacterial in nature. Based on the current genomic data, T6SSs are found only in the non-pathogenic Neisseria spp. Future investigations into the T6SS of commensal Neisseria spp. and their secreted effectors may provide an avenue for the development of novel therapeutic options in the treatment of multidrug resistant infections.

Up to ten distinct bacterial secretion pathways have been discovered to date. Of the Sec-independent, one step systems that facilitate transport across both membranes of Gram-negative species, the Type VI Secretion System (T6SS) is one of the most recent [1–6]. While the T6SS was first defined functionally in the Gram-negative Vibrio cholerae by Pukatzki et al. [7], type VI genes had been identified previous to this in Salmonella enterica [8], Rhizobium leguminosarum [9], Edwardsiella tarda [10] and Francisella tularensis [11]. Additionally, as far back as 1996, the haemolysin co-regulated protein (Hcp) was identified to be secreted by a system that was at the time unidentified [12]. T6SS are large multiprotein complexes that bridge the cell envelope of Gram-negative bacteria [13]. These secretion systems are composed of 13 core proteins [14, 15] identified according to the standard T6SS nomenclature [16] as TssA, TssB, TssC, TssD (Hcp), TssE, TssF, TssG, TssH (ClpV), TssI (VgrG), TssJ, TssK, TssL, and TssM. While T6SS core genes are highly conserved [14, 17], effector loci have also been identified with genes that are ordered identically across different bacterial species [18]. In a functioning T6SS, TssABCDEFGHIJKLM form a structure that is similar to an inverted bacteriophage tail [15]. These 13 proteins are divided into three groups based on the T6SS subunit they co-assemble: the baseplate (TssEFGK); membrane complex (TssJLM); and the injection apparatus containing the needle sheath (TssBC). While TssA is documented in some literature as being a component of the T6SS baseplate [15, 19–21], the role of this protein is slightly more complex. Zoued et al., (2016) showed that TssA interacts with TssJM in the early stage of T6SS biogenesis and is involved in the recruitment and positioning of the secretion system baseplate. TssA also initiates the coordinated assembly and extension of the tail tube/sheath [22, 23] and may also play a role in maintaining sheath stability while in an extended state [24]. Contraction of the TssBC sheath drives a structure consisting of stacked tubular TssD (Hcp) proteins topped with TssI from the secreting cell into target cells. TssI is a valine-glycine repeat (VgrG) protein ‘spike’ [25]; VgrG facilitate toxin effector secretion [26] and, following their delivery into target cells, the contracted TssBC sheaths are disassembled through recruitment of the AAA +ATPase, TssH (ClpV) [27, 28]. VgrG are both structural as well as secreted components of the T6SS [29], however, these genes are often not as well conserved as the ones encoding the other core secretion system components [30]. Within different bacterial species, vgrG can be present either individually or in multiple copies [31] and their gene products associate as either homotrimeric or heterotrimeric structures [32, 33] to form the puncturing device tip. VgrG trimers are often capped by proline-alanine-alanine-arginine (PAAR) repeat motif containing proteins. While binding of VgrG with PAAR motif proteins gives the T6SS puncturing device a sharpened point [34], PAAR are also involved in the recruitment of certain effector proteins [35, 36]. It has been speculated that the T6SS evolved initially for the purpose of competitive fitness [20] with species adapting their T6SS over time to mediate interactions with other cell types [37]. It is thought that T6SS mediated killing of neighbouring cells could lead to the acquisition of new EI pairs through horizontal gene transfer (HGT) [38]. The acquisition of new EI pairs would allow bacterial populations to diversify, enhance niche survival [39, 40], and increase fitness in comparison to a parent strain [38, 40]. T6SS are versatile systems that have been shown to secrete a range of effector proteins including lipases, amidases, and nucleases [18, 41], as well as other pore forming toxins [37]. While T6SS are known to translocate toxins into fungal [42] as well as prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells [43], these systems may have other functions that include biofilm formation, host cell adhesion, and nutrient acquisition [44–47]. In relation to T6SS-mediated competition, many of the effectors already characterised have been shown to exert intraspecies [25] as well as interspecies antibacterial effects on other bacteria [20, 48]. Antibacterial T6SS have been identified in a range of Gram-negative species including Serratia marcescens [49], Acinetobacter baumannii [50], Klebsiella pneumoniae [51, 52], V. cholerae [53], and Neisseria cinerea [54]. Overall, the T6SS may be responsible for shaping the composition of microbial populations [20, 41, 55, 56]. Commensal bacteria are known to be able to interfere with the capacity for host colonisation by pathogenic species. In regard to the commensal Neisseria spp., these have been shown to be able to out compete the pathogens using several mechanisms including the T6SS [54, 57, 58]. While interspecies competition within the gut and intestinal niches are well documented [59, 60], similar processes are thought to occur at other sites with a high turnover of colonising species including the pharyngeal mucosa and within the nasopharynx [61, 62]. Individual T6SS genes have previously been identified in Neisseria mucosa, Neisseria sicca, Neisseria subflava [63], N. cinerea [54], and two complete T6SS system types were described by Calder et al. [64] in isolates of N. subflava . While commensal Neisseria species are normally considered harmless, a study carried out by Li et al. [65] implicated N. subflava as an opportunistic pathogen being the cause of epithelial cell-cell barrier disruption and induction of inflammation in subjects with bronchiectasis. A small number of other disease cases have been reported; the case report and review carried out by Baraldes et al. [66] summarises details for eight well-documented cases of meningitis caused by N. subflava . A full analysis of the presence and diversity of the Neisseria spp. T6SS has been undertaken to investigate the repertoire of these Gram-negative diplococci possessing these secretion systems. The core genes encoding the T6SS mechanism (tssA, tssB, tssC, tssD, tssE, tssF, tssG, tssH, tssI, tssJ, tssK, tssL, tssM) have been sought in the Neisseria spp. genomic data and their sequence homology, organization, and synteny assessed. Genes encoding PAAR and putative effector-immunity protein pairs for N. subflava strain KU1003-01 have also been assessed here and analysed in light of their presence within other Neisseria spp. Generation of a portfolio of T6SS effectors across Neisseria spp. will only be possible following the availability of more complete whole genome sequence data; this remains a subject for future investigations.

T6SSs were identified in the Illumina MiSeq generated data that was assembled and annotated as described previously [64]. To gain greater clarity as to the chromosomal organization of the T6SS core genes and vgrG copy numbers within N. subflava strain KU1003-01, this genome was re-sequenced via MicrobesNG (Birmingham, UK) enhanced genome sequencing combining MiSeq and MinION short and long read technologies. The complete, circular chromosomal sequence (SUB4831743) was annotated using Prokka 1.14.3 [67] and visualised using DNA Plotter [68]. For comparative analysis the complete genome sequences of N. subflava strain KU1003-01, N. subflava strain M18660, and N. subflava strain ATCC 49275 were re-annotated using RASTtk [69, 70]. T6SS gene clusters were sought in these genome sequences using the T6SS-HMMER gene-finding tool on the SecReT6 database [71]. The 13 core T6SS genes identified by T6SS-HMMER in each of the three genome sequences were then located within the RAST annotations and the function of their predicted proteins was further investigated using BLASTp [72], and WU-blast 2.0 search against SecReT6 v2.0 database [71]. The 13 core T6SS genes from each of the three genome sequences were aligned using clustal O (1.2.4) [73]. To identify other Neisseria spp. possessing T6SS genes, T6SS genes (tssA, tssB, tssC, tssD, tssE, tssF, tssG, tssH, tssJ, tssK, tssL, tssM) from N. subflava strain KU1003-01 and from the reference genome N. subflava strain ATCC 49275 were used as query sequences in BLASTn searches [72]. For the Neisseria spp. on NCBI and PubMLST where blast hits were identified, the genome sequence data was downloaded and re-annotated using RASTtk for further investigation.

Island Viewer 4 [74] was used to identify the presence of genomic (GI) or pathogenicity islands (PAI) in N. subflava strain KU1003-01, N. subflava strain M18660, and N. subflava strain ATCC 49275. Identified islands were assessed using DNA plotter’s GC skew function [68].

To assess T6SS diversity, amino acid sequences for T6SS core components were evaluated in a Neighbour Joining tree using Unipro UGENE v38.1 [75]. Due to the coding sequences for TssH (ClpV) and TssI (VgrG) being interrupted by contig breaks for some genome sequence datasets, these were not included, therefore 11 of the 13 core T6SS amino acid sequences were concatenated using the combine fasta tool, https://www.bioinformatics.org/sms2/combine_fasta.html [76].

Within the MinION sequence data for N. subflava strain KU1003-01, a total of nine vgrG CDS were auto-annotated by RASTtk. One truncated vgrG was identified within the original Illumina Miseq data that could not be identified in the MinION data. The amino acid sequences for a total of ten VgrG were aligned using clustal O (1.2.4) and percent identity matrices produced using Clustal Omega 2.0 [73]. The Simple Modular Architecture Research Tool (SMART) webserver, version 9.0 [77] and Phyre2 [78] was used to identify the presence of typical domains associated with VgrG. The domains were aligned using clustal O (1.2.4) and their similarities calculated using the Clustal Omega 2.0 % identity matrix tool. Based on this analysis, the diverse VgrG C-terminal regions following DUF2345 in N. subflava strain KU1003-01 were used as queries in tBLASTn to identify similar sequences in other Neisseria spp.

A gene encoding a DUF4150 containing protein was identified in the reference genome sequence of N. subflava strain ATCC 49275 (Genbank id: QCL71082.1). Proteins with DUF4150 are associated with PAAR in other species [79] and so the QCL71082.1 sequence was chosen to search for homologues across other Neisseria spp. genomes.

T6SS chaperone proteins can be encoded in gene clusters along with vgrG and effectors [80], these proteins have been identified with domains DUF1795 [81], DUF2169 [80], and DUF4123 [82]. CDS FAH66_RS06000 in N. subflava strain ATCC 49275 is homologous to DUF2169 and is adjacent to a vgrG. DV114_RS04590 in N. subflava M18660 is homologous to DUF4123 and is also adjacent to vgrG within a polymorphic toxin locus. Predicted protein sequences from these CDSs were used as queries in tBLASTn searches to identify putative T6SS chaperones in Neisseria spp. No DUF1795 homologues could be identified in T6SS clusters for N. subflava strain KU1003-01 or either of the two N. subflava reference genome sequences. In addition to the homology searching described above, the predicted products of CDSs both 5′ and 3′ of vgrG copies for N. subflava strain KU1003-01 and N. subflava strain M18660 were investigated using BLASTp [72] and the SMART webserver, version 9.0 [77] to identify chaperone protein associated domains.

To further investigate CDSs adjacent to vgrG for putative T6SS effectors, CDSs predicted to be co-expressed along with copies of vgrG based on operon predictions by FgenesB [83] and Operon Mapper [84], as well as the presence or absence of promoter sequences, predicted by Bprom [83] were investigated. The products of CDS predicted to be co-expressed along with vgrG were subject to SMART analysis [77] to identify the presence of enzymatic domains. WU-blast 2.0 searches against the SecReT6 database [71] were carried out to identify homology to any known T6SS effectors and Bastion6 [85] used to compare features of these sequences to any previously identified T6SS effectors.

WU-blast 2.0 [71] searches against the SecReT6 database were carried out to identify T6SS immunity protein. Unlike T6SS effectors, immunity proteins do not usually have N-terminal signal peptide sequences [86] and SignalP-5.0 [87] was also used to predict the presence or absence of signal peptide sequences for the products of CDS both 5′ and 3′ of vgrG.

Prokaryotic genomes can contain numerous repeated elements [88] that are either identical to one another or highly similar to other sequences at other genomic locations. Examples of repeated elements include rhs family genes, mobile genetic elements as well as genes encoding toxin-antitoxin systems [88–90]. Repetitive sequences are known to cause issues during whole genome assembly [91] and de novo sequence assemblers can struggle to distinguish small differences between them [92]. In some instances, these sequences can mean that the task of complete genome assembly is not possible [93]. Within the original Illumina MiSeq sequencing data for N. subflava strain KU1003-01 [64], vgrG and genes encoding mobile element proteins fragmented the sequence assembly. Out of 58 assembled contigs, 11 contigs terminated at mobile element genes and 21 at vgrG. Numerous contigs terminating with vgrG are also present within the draft genome sequences of other N. subflava biovar perflava and N. flavescens (data not shown), thus highlighting the difficulties caused by multiple copies of homologous, repetitive sequences during whole genome sequence assembly [94]. It was for this reason that enhanced genome sequencing was chosen for N. subflava strain KU1003-01 with a hybrid strategy for genome assembly that involved combining Illumina short reads with the longer MinION reads. Accurate assessments of vgrG copies, and associated sequences such as effectors and immunity (EI) genes in N. subflava strain KU1003-01, was only possible following analysis of the complete hybrid strategy-generated genome sequence. The complete genome sequence for N. subflava strain KU1003-01 reveals T6SS core gene clusters present at two locations on the chromosome (Fig. 1). A duplication of one of the core gene clusters containing copies of tssH, tssD, tagL, tssL, tssK, tssB, and tssC is present at positions 129 554 to 138 892. Alignment of the duplicate region to the cluster present between positions 1 018 014 to 1 030 292 identified these regions as having 98 % nucleotide identity to one another according to a Percent Identity Matrix - created by Clustal 2.1 suggesting this 9.3 kb region has arisen through duplication. A duplicate core T6SS gene cluster is also present in the reference genome sequence of N. subflava strain M18660. It is anticipated that identical or near identical duplications such as the one seen in N. subflava strain KU1003-01 would not be readily identified in other draft genome sequence data. Indeed, this duplication was not evident in the draft data of N. subflava strain KU1003-01 [64]. Analysis of the number of T6SS core gene clusters across complete commensal Neisseria spp. genomes with the same T6SS type including N. mucosa strain FDARGOS_260, N. mucosa strain ATCC 29256, N. elongata strain M15910, and N. sicca strain DSM 17713 indicates a duplicate core T6SS-A gene cluster is likely to only be present in N. subflava biovar perflava and N. flavescens . The core T6SS genes of N. subflava strain KU1003-01 share between 97–100 % identity to those in the reference genome N. subflava strain M18660 but only share between 52–57 % identity to those of N. subflava strain ATC 49275. The core genes of N. subflava strain RH3002v2g share between 93–97 % identity with the core genes of N. subflava strain ATC 49275 and only 50–56 % identity to those of N. subflava strain M18660 (Table 1). Two main T6SS types, T6SS-A and T6SS-B, have been identified in Neisseria spp., as evidenced by differences in core gene sequence homology and organization (Fig. 2a, b). N. subflava strains KU1003-01 and M18660 have T6SS-A. N. subflava strains KU1003-02, RH3002v2g, and ATCC 49275 have T6SS-B.

Of the 259 T6SS possessing neisserial genome sequences identified on both NCBI and PubMLST, as of August 2021, only ten are complete, closed, circular genome sequences. Complete T6SSs were identified in 59 genome sequences on NCBI and 200 on PubMLST (Table S1). Of the 259 genome sequences, 27 have T6SS-A only, with similarity to the systems seen in N. subflava strains KU1003-01 and M18660, and 197 genomes have T6SS-B only. A further 27 isolates across both NCBI and PubMLST have both T6SS types within their genome sequences. The remaining eight genome sequences have a subtype of T6SS-B, identified here as T6SS-Bi. TSS6-B appears to be the predominant type in Neisseria spp.; 13 species are identified as only having T6SS-B. There are six Neisseria spp. that have only T6SS-A and two with the subtype T6SS-Bi. Of the Neisseria spp. identified with both T6SS-A and T6SS-B within a single genome sequence, these include: Neisseria canis; Neisseria dumasiana; Neisseria macacae; Neisseria sicca; and Neisseria zoodegmatis . The identification of two different T6SS types within a single genome is not unique, as previously Escherichia coli [95], Azoarcus olearius [96], and Vibrio parahaemolyticus [97] have been identified with more than one T6SS type. While T6SS are a common feature of commensal Neisseria spp., following BLASTn searches for T6SS core genes in around 10 000 N . gonorrhoeae genome sequences and 29 000 N . meningitidis genome sequences across both PubMLST and NCBI, these secretion systems could not be identified in the pathogens. In the absence of T6SS, it is likely the pathogens rely on other mechanisms for competition within their niche. In regard to N. meningitidis , all isolates are thought to carry at least one contact dependant inhibition (CDI) system with some strains having multiple loci consisting of a large number of CDI-associated toxin/immunity genes [98]. CDI systems are two-partner secretion mechanisms (TPS), a branch of type V secretion systems [99] that are known to regulate growth of neighbouring cells through cell to cell contact [100]. Unlike N. meningitidis , N. gonorrhoeae are not thought to have functioning CDI systems [101]. There are few studies on the ability of N. gonorrhoeae to outcompete other species although it has been suggested that N. gonorrhoeae may facilitate its survival at the expense of its neighbours through modulation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) biology [102]. At specific stages of disease, modulation of the PMN oxidative burst can aid gonococcal survival [102, 103].

SecReT6 [104, 105] has classified T6SSs from various Gram-negative species into three types: type i; type ii; and type iii. The Type i T6SS are further subdivided into six subtypes: i1; i2; i3; i4a; i4b; and i5. According to T6SS classification predicted through the SecReT6 webserver, the neisserial T6SS-A is similar to the SecReT6 T6SS subtype i2. Since initial identification of T6SS-A and T6SS-B [64], a subtype of T6SS-B (T6SS-Bi) has been discovered within genome sequences of Neisseria animaloris and Neisseria oralis . The T6SS-B and T6SS-Bi subtypes are similar to members of the SecReT6 T6SS i3. The core gene products of T6SS-Bi of N. animaloris are on average 85 % sequence identical to those of N. subflava strain ATCC 49275 and around 92 % sequence identical to those of N. canis , N. dumasiana, and N. zoodegmatis . For N. oralis, these are 76 and 78 % sequence identical, respectively. While these T6SSs have sequence homology to T6SS-B, their core genes are organised differently (Fig. 2c, d). The clustering of the T6SS-Bi in relation to the other neisserial T6SSs is shown on a Neighbour Joining tree (Fig. 3).

The genetic organisation of T6SS-A is conserved within Neisseria spp. where T6SS-A is the sole type present (Table S1; Fig. 2a). T6SS-A have their core genes present across two loci with at least one vgrG and a gene encoding PAAR located with one of the core gene clusters (Fig. 2a). T6SS-A also have ‘orphan’ copies of vgrG scattered on their chromosomes, separate from the core gene clusters. While N. subflava strain KU1003-01 has a total of ten T6SS-A type vgrG copies (Fig. 1), investigations from other complete Neisseria spp. genomes highlight a varying number of vgrG copies. For example, N. subflava strain M18660 has six vgrG copies, N. mucosa strain FDARGOS_260 has 11, N. mucosa strain ATCC19696 has nine, N. elongata strain 15 910 has ten, N. macacae strain ATCC33926 has three, N. canis strain NCTC10296 has four, and N. zoodegmatis strain NCTC12230 has eight copies of vgrG. Within N. subflava strains KU1003-01 and M18660 and strains of N. elongata , a single PAAR CDS is located at one of the core clusters. For N. mucosa , two putative PAAR are present, with one present at each core gene cluster. For the N. mucosa strains highlighted in Box B of the Neighbour Joining tree (Fig. 3) one of these PAAR CDSs is ‘disrupted’ by a 107 bp Correia Repeat-Enclosed Element (CREE) [106, 107]. CREE are known to disrupt coding sequences [108] and to include promoters [109, 110]. This CREE disrupted PAAR copy was not auto-annotated by either Prokka 1.14.3 [67] or RASTtk [69, 70], likely due to an ATg to ATc start codon mutation caused by one of the CREE inverted repeats. Although the CREE does have upstream sequences similar to the promoters identified in N. gonorrhoeae by [109], it is not clear from this study if this copy of PAAR would be functional. All T6SS-A have a peptidoglycan binding (PGB) domain protein, OmpA (tagL) encoded between tssL and tssH. While inner membrane proteins (TssL) have been identified both with and without PGB domains [13] for different T6SS types, the T6SS-A type TssL do not have PGB domains. In neisserial T6SS-A, the PGB domain is encoded separately as the accessory protein tagL [111]. The exact role of TagL within the commensal Neisseria spp. is unclear. While OmpA domain proteins can be found within T6SS gene clusters for all virulent strains of E. coli, Burkholderia, Yersinia, Pseudomonas, and Ralstonia [86, 112], these accessory proteins are thought to be involved in localising the secretion system to specific cellular sites [111] and stabilising its structure [13], or forming T6SS membrane translocation pores [86].

The genetic organisation of the T6SS-B is conserved across the Neisseria spp. investigated (Table S1; Fig. 2b). N. subflava strains KU1003-02, RH3002v2g [64], and ATCC 49275 all have T6SS-B. T6SS-B are characterised by the presence of a single T6SS gene cluster adjacent to a gene encoding regulatory protein TagF with DUF2094 [113]. The T6SS-B in N. subflava strains KU1003-02 and RH3002v2g [64] are arranged identically to the T6SS identified on a plasmid of N. cinerea by Custodio et al. [54]. All Neisseria spp. with T6SS-B have a single vgrG followed by a gene encoding a putative chaperone protein with a DUF2169-like domain [80], these are encoded downstream of tssM at one end of the core cluster. In N. subflava strain ATCC 49275, the organisation of genes downstream from vgrG and the putative chaperone bear similarities to the polymorphic toxin loci described by [114]. For N. subflava strains KU1003-02, RH3002v2g, and ATCC 49275, as well as the other Neisseria spp. investigated here, T6SS-B clusters are flanked at either end by rhs. In N. subflava , the Rhs encoded downstream of vgrG have N-terminal DUF4150 - PAAR-like domains, however, these domains are absent for the Rhs encoded upstream of tssA. While these findings are similar to those of Custodio et al., [54] for N. cinerea , for N. subflava strains RH3002v2g and ATCC 49275, additional, ‘orphan’ rhs with PAAR domains are present elsewhere on their chromosomes and away from the core T6SS cluster. Unlike the T6SS-A, T6SS-B core clusters do not feature tagL. Instead, these systems have ‘evolved’ TssL [13, 115] with C-terminal OmpA PGB motifs. The T6SS-B also feature an accessory protein ImpE, encoded between tssE and tssD. In some species, ImpE is involved in temperature dependent secretion as well as virulence [8, 86].

T6SS-B subtypes could only be identified in N. animaloris (Table S1; Fig. 2c) and N. oralis (Table S1; Fig. 2d). For N. animaloris , the core T6SS-Bi genes are separated into three clusters. Cluster one consists of tagF, tssA, tssB, tssC, tssD, impE, tssE, tssF, tssG, and tssH (clpV). Cluster two is tssJ, tssK, tssL, and tssM. Cluster three consists of vgrG and the putative chaperone gene. For N. oralis , the core genes are separated into two clusters. Cluster one consists of tagF, tssA, tssB, tssC, tssD, impE, tssE, tssF, tssG, and tssH (clpV). Cluster two is tssJ, tssK, tssL, tssM, vgrG, and the chaperone gene. T6SS-Bi clusters one and two are encoded on opposite strands for both N. oralis and N. animaloris . Within the genome sequences of N. animaloris the two clusters are separated by an approximately 60 kb region, the gene pair (cluster three), consisting of vgrG and chaperone is located over 30 kb away from cluster one. For N. oralis, the region separating clusters one and two is much shorter at only 78 bases. For both species, Rhs with N-terminal DUF4150 PAAR and toxin domains are not encoded downstream of vgrG although these are present within different regions of these chromosomes.

For the Neisseria spp. possessing both T6SS types (T6SS-A/B), including N. canis, N. dumasiana, N. macacae, N. sicca, and N. zoodegmatis (Table S1), the organisation of T6SS-B core genes are identical to those within the T6SS-B only isolates. For these species however, differences exist regarding their T6SS-A. With the exception of N. canis , all T6SS-A/B Neisseria spp. have a full repertoire of 13 T6SS core genes in their T6SS-A. Within the complete genome sequence for N. canis strain NCTC 10296, tssA and tssM are not present and tssF is preceded by a putative transposase. While N. canis has VgrG encoded at one of the core clusters, for the other T6SS-A/B species, vgrG are not present at either core cluster. All of the T6SS-A/B species do however have ‘orphan’ T6SS-A type vgrG scattered throughout their chromosomes. With the exception of N. canis , all T6SS-A/B Neisseria spp. have PAAR encoded at a different T6SS core cluster than the T6SS-A only species. Within the complete genome sequence for N. canis strain NCTC 10296, PAAR is encoded within an entirely different region of the genome to the core T6SS clusters and immediately upstream of a nucleoporin-like protein CDS. While N. macacae and N. sicca have a single T6SS-A type PAAR encoded at one of their core clusters, the draft genome sequences for N. dumasiana strain 93 087 and N. zoodegmatis strain NCTC12229 have a second ‘orphan’ PAAR with lower similarity to the one encoded at the core cluster. In N. dumasiana strain 93 087, the ‘orphan’ PAAR is followed by a putative T6SS amidase effector (Tae4) and immunity (Tai4) gene pair. Within the genome sequences of the T6SS-A/B N. sicca and N. macacae investigated, both T6SS-A core gene clusters are flanked on either side by CREE with conserved CR inverted repeat sequences at either end [106, 107]. CREE are not present at the same positions within the Neisseria spp. that only have T6SS-A. Within the reference genome for N. sicca strain DSM 17713, the CREE flanking core cluster A are both 157 bp in length and those flanking core cluster B are 157 and 161 bp in length. All four CREE contain the ‘TAAGGTGCTGAAG’ IHF binding sequence described by Snyder et al. [107]. Overall, the CREE share between 97–100 % sequence identity across their full lengths. The inverted repeats at either end of these sequences differ by either one or two bases in comparison to the ‘TATAGTGGTTT’ described by Liu et al. [106] and consist of either ‘TATAGTGGaTT’ or ‘TATAtTGGaTT’. While CREE are abundant in the pathogenic Neisseria spp., these are also the second most common repeat type found in the commensals [63]. CREE with similar lengths are present in both commensal and pathogenic species [106, 107] and in the pathogens, CREE are often identified near virulence or metabolic genes [106]. It is thought CREE may play a role in genome rearrangements as well as in gene regulation [107].

The Neighbour Joining tree (Fig. 3) shows distinct patterns of clustering for the different neisserial T6SS types. Three main groups can be seen for T6SS-A. The first consists of N. subflava biovar perflava and N. flavescens , the second consists of N. elongata, N. mucosa, and N. sicca, and the third N. zoodegmatis , N. dumasiana , and N. canis , which are species commonly associated with non-human hosts. N. subflava biovar perflava and N. flavescens are thought to have arisen from a common ancestor and clustering of these T6SS-A sequences as one group is consistent with these being variants of the same ancestral species [116]. Within the second group, additional genomic analyses were conducted to determine whether the annotated species designations were consistent with the homology data. The genome sequences for these N. mucosa and N. sicca T6SS-containing strains was analysed using the genome comparator tool at PubMLST for core genome MLST (cgMLST) and phylogenetic analysis [117] and aligned using the MAUVE contig mover (MCM) against reference genome sequences [118]. Based on the results from MCM, the draft genomic data from 11 stains (Fig. 3, Box A) aligned with greater collinearity across the entire genome to the reference genome sequence N. sicca strain DSM 17713. cgMLST analysis also clustered these isolates as a group along with the N. sicca reference genome. Therefore, six N. mucosa and two N. macacae are suggested by MCM alignments, CgMLST, and T6SS phylogeny to be N. sicca (Fig. 3, Box A). The genomes for the six strains highlighted by Fig. 3, Box B align closely with the reference genome for N. mucosa strain FDAARGOS 260. cgMLST analysis also clustered these N. mucosa isolates as a group along with N. sicca strain UMB0321. The non-human Neisseria spp. including N. zoodegmatis , N. dumasiana, and N. canis are genetically distantly related to other Neisseria spp [116]. and share a similar environmental niche as inhabitants of the normal oropharyngeal flora of non-human hosts [119, 120]. TssB, TssC, TssD (Hcp), and TssE of N. dumasiana are homologous to those found in N. zoodegmatis and share between 97–100% similarity along their lengths. TssAFGJKLM however have lower similarity and are on average 86 % similar. Certain components of the T6SS including TssB are highly conserved [121] and while the high level of similarity and phylogenetic clustering for the T6SS-A genes suggests common ancestry, there is no evidence of recent sharing of T6SS-A core genes across these species. The clustering of the N. canis T6SS-A is consistent with the similarity scores for these components. These are less similar to those of N. zoodegmatis and N. dumasiana and only share 72 % similarity along their lengths. T6SS-A components are conserved across the commensal Neisseria spp. Homologues of TssB, TssC, TssK, and TssL with >45 % identity were identified in other genera, including the beta proteobacteria, Chromobacteria spp. Similar levels of homology were observed by [121] in their analysis of Ralstonia solanacearum and by Repizo et al., [122] when assessing the Acinetobacter genus. The distribution of neisserial T6SS-B genes clusters into five main groups with the first group consisting of N. subflava and N. flavescens . The second and largest of the five groups consists of N. sicca , N. macacae , N. elongata , N. mucosa , N. bergeri, N. lactamica , N. polysaccharea, and N. cinerea . The third includes N. dumasiana , N. zoodegmatis , N. canis , and N. wadsworthii . Sharing a phylogenetic branch with the third group are N. animaloris , which are distinct in possessing the T6SS-Bi subtype where the gene organization differs (Fig. 2c). Interestingly, the T6SS-Bi type is also seen in N. oralis , which is on a distant phylogenetic branch in comparison to the other Neisseria spp. A lone representative of Neisseria zalophi also demonstrates the presence of the T6SS-B in more diverse Neisseria spp. N. zalophi was isolated from the oral cavity of a California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) [123]. With the exception of TssBCD of N. zalophi which are on average 97 % similar to those of N. canis , N. dumasiana, and N. zoodegmatis , the other T6SS components TssAEFGJKLM are on average 77 % similar to those within these non-human commensals. Using MCM and cgMLST as for the T6SS-A possessing strains, 12 T6SS-B possessing strains believed to be incorrectly assigned species designations were investigated. Here six N. mucosa and two N. macacae are suggested to be N. sicca based on alignments from MCM, cgMLST results, and T6SS phylogeny (Fig. 3, Box C). Likewise, four N. sicca are believed to be N. mucosa (Fig. 3, Box D). Interestingly, the application of this same analysis using the phylogenetic clustering data, MCM, and cgMLST determined that some T6SS-B groups contained mixtures of species (Fig. 3, Boxes E, F, and G). This highlights the sharing of T6SS-B core components through horizontal gene transfer events between N. bergeri, N. lactamica , and N. polysaccharae (Fig. 3, Box E). The latter two species are common commensal species of the human nasopharynx and are known to engage in frequent horizontal gene transfer events [124, 125] therefore this is perhaps not surprising. The phylogenetic tree also highlights sharing between N. polysaccharae, N. cinerea , and N. lactamica , which is also in line with previous research focused on other features [63, 126, 127] (Fig. 3, Box F). Lastly, a cluster of similar T6SS-B possessing strains of N. lactamica and N. polysaccharae share a branch of the phylogenetic tree with a more distantly related N. subflava (Fig. 3, Box G). Upon investigation, this lone N. subflava strain 42 060 (LNP28165) fits amongst the members of the N. subflava species by cgMLST and MCM analysis. However, the T6SS-B gene products are 99 % similar as determined by Clustal 2.1 to those in N. polysaccharea and N. lactamica , yet only 90 % similar to N. subflava strain ATCC 49275. The concatenated T6SS-B amino acid sequences from N. dumasiana , N. zoodegmatis , N. canis , and N. wadsworthii are between 98 and 100% similar to one another and suggests there may be horizontal gene transfer of T6SS-B genes between these species. These species’ T6SS-B proteins are around 91 % similar to those of the T6SS-Bi type proteins of N. animaloris . The high level of homology for the T6SS components across different Neisseria spp., isolated from disparate geographical locations, and from different hosts living in diverse habitats suggests these T6SSs have been long established in the Neisseria spp. However, phylogenetic analysis does not indicate recent sharing of T6SS-A core components across the Neisseria spp. Mixed species phylogenetic branches suggest the situation is different for T6SS-B. For example, N. subflava strain 42 060 contains T6SS-B gene products more closely related to those in N. polysaccharea and N. lactamica than others of the same species (Fig. 3, Box G), indicative of horizontal gene transfer. A T6SS-B has been identified on a plasmid of N. cinerea isolate 49 341 (CCUG 346T) by Custodio et al. [54], which may have provided a possible source of genetic material for horizontal gene transfer of the Type 6 Secretion genes. This N. cinerea isolate 49 341 (CCUG 346T) T6SS shares a branch on the phylogenetic tree with N. lactamica and N. polysaccharae (Fig. 3, Box F).

The separation of T6SS loci into multiple transcriptional units can give insight into how different T6SS gene arrangements and clusters have evolved across different species [122]. T6SS loci from other bacterial species have already been identified within co-regulated operons [128] and can be found encoded in separate transcriptional blocks in, for example, the Acinetobacter genus [122]. Given the organization of the neisserial T6SS-A into two gene clusters, with some including a duplication as in N. subflava strain KU1003-01, and the neisserial T6SS-B into one gene cluster, it is apparent that these different manifestations of the Type 6 Secretion Systems will also differ in the nature of their transcriptional units. To investigate the potential transcriptional organization of the T6SS-A, FgenesB [83] and Operon Mapper analyses [84] were carried out on T6SS-A core clusters one and two of N. subflava strain KU1003-01. T6SS-A core cluster B is arranged into four putative operons according to FgenesB: operon one includes a hypothetical gene and PAAR; operon two consists of tssC and tssB; operon three includes tssK, tssL, ompA, tssD, and tssH; and operon four consists of vgrG and two hypothetical protein encoding CDSs. These predictions fit the gene orientations and spacing of the CDSs well (Fig. 2a). FgenesB predicted identical operons for the T6SS-A sequences in the reference genomes N. mucosa strain FDARGOS-260, N. elongata strain M15910, N. sicca strain DSM 17713, and N. sicca strain UMB0321. Operon Mapper predicts just three operons for T6SS-A core cluster B, combining the FgenesB operon three and four. In support of these predictions, an Inverted Repeat (IR) of the neisserial DNA Uptake Sequence (DUS IR) is present in-between clpV and vgrG1. Although a quarter of all genes are thought to be either attenuated or terminated by IR sequences [129], according to ARNold [130], the IR following clpV is not a transcriptional terminator. RNA-seq work carried out by [131] in N. gonorrhoeae confirmed transcription can occur across DUS IRs and it is therefore possible, the IR at core cluster B acts as a transcriptional attenuator rather than a terminator. T6SS-A cluster A of N. subflava strain KU1003-01 is encoded as a single operon consisting of tssM, tssA, tssF, tssG, tssJ, and tssE according to Operon Mapper; these predictions fit with the gene orientations and spacing of CDSs predicted by both RAST and Prodigal:2.6. In contrast, FgenesB analysis predicted T6SS-A cluster A to be encoded as two operons with the first containing tssM, tssA, and tssF and the second tssG, tssJ, and tssE. In support of the predictions of Operon Mapper, within the complete genomes of N. mucosa strain FDARGOS-260 as well as N. elongata strain M15910, cluster A are predicted to be encoded as a single operon according to both FgenesB and Operon Mapper. According to FgenesB predictions, the T6SS-B of N. subflava ATCC 49275 is composed of four operons. Operon one consists of tagF, tssA, tssB, tssC, and tssD; this is followed by a single transcriptional unit consisting of impE. Operon two consists of tssE, tssF, tssG, and tssH and is followed by operon three consisting of tssJ, tssK, tssL, and tssM. FgenesB predicted vgrG as well as the gene encoding the putative chaperone protein with DUF2169 and rhs as operon four. In contrast to these predictions, Operon Mapper predicts the T6SS-B as being arranged as a single operon that includes vgrG and the downstream CDS encoding the chaperone protein. The FgenesB predictions are thought to accurately represent the operonic arrangement of T6SS-B on the basis of the arrangement of genes in T6SS-Bi. In accord with the FgenesB predictions for the T6SS-B, the T6SS-Bi clusters for N. animaloris strain and N. oralis (Fig. 2c, d), are present as three and two separate clusters, respectively. In addition, while isolates of N. oralis can have either T6SS-B or T6SS-Bi (Table S1), the gene products for these two types are on average 99 % similar to one another. It is therefore most likely the T6SS-Bi subtypes within both species have arisen through rearrangement of a once single T6SS-B locus. Such rearrangements that retain function are more likely when the locus is composed of multiple operons than a single operon, which would require acquisition of new gene expression capacity after rearrangement. The operon predictions and core gene clustering seen with T6SS-Bi are consistent with findings in other species. Repizo et al., [122] identified two different genetic arrangements of T6SS among Acitenobacter spp. that are thought to have arisen from a single T6SS loci being split into separate transcriptional blocks.

T6SS VgrG are multi-domain proteins that bear similarities to a polypeptide produced through fusion of two T4 phage gene products (gp), gp27 and gp5 [33], also known as gpD or gpV in bacteriophage P2 [132]. These two domains are linked by an oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide-binding (OB) feature located within the gp5 region [29, 133, 134]. Two categories of VgrG are associated with T6SSs, these being either the canonical or evolved VgrG types [135]. Canonical VgrG are thought to only play a mechanical or structural role in regard to the T6SS and consist of N–terminal gp27 domains and C-terminal gp5, beta strand repeat regions only [136–138]. Evolved VgrG feature additional domains and sequence extensions at their C-terminal ends; these regions can be involved in either effector-binding or in some cases be toxin domains themselves [35, 80, 139]. Domains known to be associated with evolved VgrG include the T6SS_Vgr domain as well as the Domain of Unknown Function, DUF2345 [122, 138, 140]. While the exact role of DUF2345 is not known, this VgrG region has been shown to be essential for T6SS assembly in A. baumannii [134]. In other species, DUF2345 may function as an effector chaperone [141, 142] or even be an effector domain itself. In Klebsiella pneumoniae DUF2345 has been shown to exert an antibacterial effect in competition experiments [52]. Within the genome sequence of N. subflava strain KU1003-01 are genes encoding seven full length ‘evolved’ VgrG that are >800 residues in length and three partial VgrG CDSs. According to Genomic SMART analysis [77], the full length VgrG have three main domains: an N-terminal GPD domain; a central Vgr / Rhs domain; and a C-terminal DUF2345 (COG4253). Analysis of the same sequences using Phyre2 [78] highlighted the presence of putative gp5 domains with oligosaccharide-binding (OB)-fold. T6SS-A type VgrG also feature extended C-terminal sequences following DUF2345 that vary in length and composition. The approximate domain locations for the VgrG of N. subflava strain KU1003-01 and their percentage similarity in comparison to VgrG1 encoded at the core cluster are shown in Fig. 4a. A high level of amino acid similarity can be seen across each of the domains with the exception of the extended C-terminal sequences which only share between 12 and 50% similarity to one another. The lowest percentage similarity scores can be seen for VgrG10, this is thought to be a specific VgrG sequence type and associated only with Rhs effector types in the T6SS-A Neisseria spp. VgrG with specific C-terminal sequences identified in N. subflava strain KU1003-01 are also present in other Neisseria spp. and associated with homologous downstream genes (Table 2). This finding suggests that VgrG with specific C-terminal sequences are associated with certain effector types across Neisseria spp. These are similar to the ‘cargo’ type effectors described by [26]. While the T6SS-B type VgrG also have three main domains; an N-terminal GPD domain followed by a gp5 like domain containing internal repeats and a short DUF2345, T6SS-B type VgrG do not feature diverse C-terminal regions (Fig. 4b). The single VgrGs encoded within the genomes of T6SS-B N. subflava strain KU1003-02, N. subflava strain RH3002-v2g, and N. subflava strain ATCC 49275 are around 99 % similar to one another along their entire lengths and only share around 25 % similarity overall to the T6SS-A type VgrG. No T6SS-A type VgrG could be identified in the genome sequences of the T6SS-B only species.

Table 2 highlights the putative T6SS effectors encoded downstream of each vgrG for N. subflava strain KU1003-01 as well as homologues identified in other Neisseria spp. The predicted effectors include proteins with LysM, hydrolase and peptidase domains, two phospholipase D variants, a nuclease, and Rhs. The organisation of vgrG, downstream effector (E), and hypothetical genes thought to encode immunity proteins (I) are shown in Fig. 5 (a–h). Additional features of these gene clusters include dif recombination sites and neisserial DNA Uptake Sequences (DUS). The vertical blue and green bars highlight short sequences within both the N-terminal Gp5 OB fold regions of vgrG as well as homologous sequences located outside of the vgrG CDS.

In regard to the dif sites identified in N. subflava strain KU1003-01, these flank the vgrG5/6 (Fig. 4d) and vgrG7 (Fig. 5g) clusters. A single dif site is also present at one end of the vgrG9 cluster (Fig. 5e). It is possible these gene clusters exist as either one or several genomic islands, flanked by dif, similar to those flanking the horizontally acquired gonococcal genomic island (GGI) in most N. gonorrhoeae strains [143] and a significant number of serogroup C, W-135, and X N. meningitidis isolates [144]. In N. gonorrhoeae , the GGI has been shown to excise from the chromosome at dif sites and exist as transient extrachromosomal circular DNA following its excision [145]. The genomic region where dif are present is shown on Fig. 1 and marked ‘dif’. In the pathogens, dif sequences are targeted by the site-specific recombinase XerCD. In N. gonorrhoeae dif consists of the 28 bp sequence; AGTTCGCATAATGATATTATGTTAAAT and in N. meningitidis ; AGTTCGCATAATATATATTATGTTAAAT [145, 146]. While the dif sites in N. subflava strain KU1003-01 have identical XerD recognition binding sequences to those in the pathogens as well as core sequences that differ by only one base, the XerC binding sequences are different to those in the pathogens. N. subflava strain KU1003-01 has two XerC binding sequence variants these being either; AAACTACATAA or AAGGAAAATAA. Complete 12 mer and shorter 11 mer copies of neisserial DUS variants are present both within the CDS of vgrG, as well as the coding and non-coding regions both up and downstream from vgrG in N. subflava strain KU1003-01. While DUSvar1 [147] are the overall dominant type in N. subflava strain KU1003-01 [64] as well as other N. subflava biovar flavescens, and N. elongata [147], and DUSvar2 are the dominant type within N. mucosa and N. sicca [147], both DUS types, DUSvar1 and DUSvar2, are present in and around vgrG of N. subflava strain KU1003-01. The presence of DUS in and around genes that may provide a competitive advantage could explain conservation and sharing of these genes across the commensals. While Neisseria spp. are naturally competent [148, 149] and preferentially take up DNA containing DUS [150], DUS are also known to regulate gene expression [151] and a quarter of all neisserial genes are thought to be either attenuated or terminated by IR sequences [129]. In regard to DUS IRs that act as Rho independent transcriptional terminators, these have spacer sequences in between the repeats that are smaller than or equal to 20 nucleotides in length [129] as well as Thymine (T) rich regions following the IR repeat [152]. A number of DUS (IRs) within the vgrG EI clusters of N. subflava strain KU1003-01 fit the criteria for being transcriptional terminators as defined by Ambur, Frye and Tønjum, [129]. The DUS IRs predicted to be Rho-independent terminators using ARNold [130] for each of the vgrG clusters are highlighted on Fig. 5 with T.

Regions i, ii, iii, iv, v and vi, highlighted on Figs 5d, e represent duplications within the vgrG5, vgrG6 and vgrG7 clusters. In regard to the vgrG6 cluster, the four genes downstream of vgrG are arranged in pairs, the two genes following vgrG6 are thought to encode the EI pair. The first, shorter ‘gene’ of the second pair within region i encodes a protein that is 97 % similar to the C-terminal region of the nuclease encoded within region ii. This partial CDS is followed by a gene encoding a product with DUF3396 that is 85 % similar to the gene product within region ii. Genes encoding DUF3396 have been identified in Acinetobacter spp. and downstream from T6SS associated nucleases by Repizo et al. [122]. These are thought to encode nuclease immunity proteins [153]. Regions iii and iv (Fig. 5d) represent a duplication of a putative phospholipase D (PlD) immunity gene within the vgrG5 cluster. The gene products of iii and iv are 94 % similar to one another. Using a WU-blast 2.0 search against SecReT6 v2.0 database both were identified as having similarities to PlD immunity protein PA5087 of Pseudomonas spp. [154] with an E-value of 3.5×10−12. Regions v and vi (Fig. 5e) represent duplications within the vgrG7 cluster. The gene pair following vgrG7 are believed to encode the EI pair. Similar to the arrangement of genes for the vgrG6 cluster, the first and shortest sequence within the second gene pair (region vi) is a partial gene encoding a product that is 79 % similar to the C-terminal region of the PlD within region v. Following this partial gene is a CDS whose product is 88 % similar to the putative PlD immunity gene. Using a WU-blast 2.0 search against SecReT6 v2.0 database both putative PlD protein sequences were identified as having similarities to PlD immunity protein PA5087 of Pseudomonas spp. [154] with E-values of 4.0×10−20 and 1.7×10−24. While T6SS poly-Immunity loci can exist and are associated with T6SS, in some species there is variation in the number and type of immunity genes they possess [155–157]. In the case of nuclease effectors, these are frequently identified along with a diverse array of immunity genes [157]. While duplication is the most likely explanation for more than one immunity gene present at vgrG loci, the duplications may not have originated in N. subflava strain KU1003-01, this being due to identical gene organisations being found in genome sequences of N. mucosa and N. elongata .

Our analyses reveal that T6SS have been long established in the Neisseria spp. While there is evidence to support HGT of T6SS-B core genes between non-pathogenic Neisseria spp., this is not the case for the T6SS-A core gene clusters. There is additional evidence to support sharing of the T6SS-A vgrG and EI gene clusters identified in N. subflava strain KU1003-01. The presence of homologues in a number of other genome sequences of N. subflava biovar perflava / flavescens, N. mucosa , N. sicca, and N. elongata supports T6SS-A vgrG and EI HGT. Our analyses suggest that a diverse range of putative T6SS toxins and immunity genes may exist for the two T6SS types and subtype in Neisseria spp. A full investigation into their true diversity needs to be conducted. While N. subflava is usually documented as a commensal, in some literature this species has been referred to as an opportunistic pathogen making investigations into its T6SS and any potential role in disease important in its own right. T6SS elements are not present in the human pathogens, N. gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis . This may suggest that the commensals utilise their T6SS for niche competition. Characterising neisserial T6SS effectors may therefore provide an avenue for the future development of novel therapeutic options in the treatment of multidrug resistant infections.

Click here for additional data file.