Cell-surface pili are important virulence factors that enable bacterial pathogens to adhere to specific host tissues and modulate host immune response. Relatively little is known about the structure of Gram-positive bacterial pili, which are built by the sortase-catalyzed covalent crosslinking of individual pilin proteins. Here we report the 1.6-A resolution crystal structure of the shaft pilin...

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), based on the enhancement of signal molecules positioned within a few nanometres from structured metal surface, is ideally suited to provide bacterial-specific molecular fingerprints which can be used for analytical purposes. However, some complex structures such as bacteria, generation reproducible SERS spectra still challenging task. Among various fact...

We review physically-motivated studies of bacterial near-surface motility driven by flagella and type IV pili (TfP) in the context of biofilm formation. We describe the motility mechanisms that individual bacteria deploying flagella and TfP use to move on and near surfaces, and discuss how the interactions of motility appendages with fluid and surfaces promote motility, attachment and dispersal...

Cell-surface display is the expression of peptides and proteins on the surface of living cells by fusing them tofunctional components of cells which are exposed to the environment of cells. This strategy can be carriedout using different surface proteins of cells as anchoring motifs and different proteins from different sourcesas a passenger protein. It is a promising strategy...

T he opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa displays several behaviors when it encounters solid or semisold surfaces. For instance, the bacterial cells form biofilms, swarm, and engage in pili-mediated twitching. Although each of these group behaviors is extensively studied on its own, little is known about the relationships among these behaviors. As P. aeruginosa cells transition from p...

Helicobacter pylori Cag type IV secretion system (Cag-T4SS) is a multi-component transporter of oncoprotein CagA across the bacterial membranes into the host epithelial cells. To understand the role of unique Cag-T4SS component CagI in CagA translocation, we have characterized it by biochemical and microscopic approaches. We observed that CagI is a predominantly membrane attached periplasmic pr...

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) is an important human pathogen that causes acute infantile diarrhea. The type IV bundle-forming pili (BFP) of typical EPEC strains are dynamic fibrillar organelles that can extend out and retract into the bacterium. The bfpF gene encodes for BfpF, a protein that promotes pili retraction. The BFP are involved in bacterial autoaggregation and in mediating ...

Temporal relationship between viral and bacterial infections has been observed, and may arise via the action of virus-induced inflammatory cytokines. These, by upregulating epithelial receptors targeted by bacteria, may encourage greater bacterial infiltration. In this study, human epithelial cells exposed to interferon-gamma but not tumour necrosis factor-alpha or interleukin 1-beta supported ...