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Background  The type IV pili (Tfp) of pathogenic  Neisseria  (i.e.,  N. gonorrhoeae  and  N. meningitidis ) are essential for twitching motility. Tfp retraction, which is dependent on the ATPase PilT, generates the forces that move bacteria over surfaces.  Neisseria  motility has mainly been studied in  N. gonorrhoeae  whereas the motility of  N. meningitidis  has not yet been characterized.    Results  In this work, we analyzed bacterial motility and monitored Tfp retraction using live-cell imaging of freely moving bacteria. We observed that  N. meningitidis  moved over surfaces at an approximate speed of 1.6 μm/s, whereas  N. gonorrhoeae  moved with a lower speed (1.0 μm/s). An alignment of the meningococcal and gonococcal  pilT  promoters revealed a conserved single base pair variation in the −10 promoter element that influence PilT expression. By tracking mutants with altered  pilT  expression or  pilE  sequence, we concluded that the difference in motility speed was independent of both. Live-cell imaging using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy demonstrated that  N. gonorrhoeae  more often moved with fewer visible retracting filaments when compared to  N. meningitidis . Correspondingly, meningococci also displayed a higher level of piliation in transmission electron microscopy. Nevertheless, motile gonococci that had the same number of filaments as  N. meningitidis  still moved with a lower speed.    Conclusions  These data reveal differences in both speed and piliation between the pathogenic  Neisseria  species during twitching motility, suggesting a difference in Tfp-dynamics.    Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12866-015-0424-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Characterization of motility and piliation in pathogenic Neisseria