{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T21:25:09Z","timestamp":1792185909205,"version":"4.4.0"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.1371\/journal.ppat.1013962","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]],"date-time":"2026-05-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1779062400000}}],"reference-count":74,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778457600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100017679","name":"American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100017679","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"NIH","award":["R21 AI172369"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R21 AI172369"]}]},{"name":"NIH","award":["T32 AI007535"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["T32 AI007535"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plospathogens.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS Pathog"],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    <jats:italic>Neisseria gonorrhoeae<\/jats:italic>\n                    is a sexually transmitted bacterial pathogen that deploys multiple mechanisms to evade the immune system, including rapid variation in surface antigens. One of the most abundant and diverse antigens is a member of the opacity-associated (Opa) family, which includes surface proteins that mediate gonococcal attachment to human receptors. Studies of Opa diversity and evolution have been limited by the inability of short-read sequencing to resolve the multiple copies of\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    in each genome, preventing a comprehensive understanding of variation in gonococcal antigens for vaccine design and immunology studies. We assembled a dataset of 219 complete genomes from phylogenetically diverse clinical isolates using long-read sequencing and developed bioinformatics and phylogenetics tools to assess\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    variation quantitatively. Each genome had on average 7 distinct\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    alleles at 9\u201312\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    loci, and almost all isolates had at least one pair of identical or near-identical\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    genes. Fewer\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    genes were in frame (and thus inferred to be expressed) than expected by chance. While genomic distance between isolates correlated with overall\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    allele sequence similarity,\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    genes were on average 74 times more diverse than the rest of the genome. One\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    locus evolved more rapidly than the other loci. There was little evidence that interspecies recombination contributed to\n                    <jats:italic>N. gonorrhoeae opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    diversity. Our findings reveal a continuously evolving\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    repertoire that leads to diverse\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    alleles even in closely related strains and indicate that there are likely unknown biological factors modulating\n                    <jats:italic>opa<\/jats:italic>\n                    reading frame.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.ppat.1013962","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T17:46:16Z","timestamp":1778521576000},"page":"e1013962","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.ppat.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Diversity and evolution of a phase-variable multi-locus antigen in Neisseria gonorrhoeae"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0838-3670","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"QinQin","family":"Yu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tatum D.","family":"Mortimer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sofia O. P.","family":"Blomqvist","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bailey","family":"Bowcutt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"David","family":"Helekal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Samantha G.","family":"Palace","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5646-1314","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Yonatan H.","family":"Grad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ppat.1013962.ref001","volume-title":"WHO bacterial priority pathogens list, 2024: Bacterial pathogens of public health importance to guide research, development and strategies to prevent and 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