Many different species of the family Enterobacteriaceae have been shown to possess fimbrial appendages which emerge from the bacterial cell as straight, rigid organelles distinct from flagella (14). The role of fimbriae (synonym: pili) as adhesins in both enterotoxigenic and uropathogenic isolates of Escherichia coli has been demnonstrated, and thus the identification of such appendages as viru...

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains are among the most common causes of diarrheal illness worldwide. These pathogens disproportionately afflict children in developing countries, where they cause substantial morbidity and are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Although these organisms are important targets for enteric vaccines, most development efforts to date...

In this work we report synthetic adhesins (SAs) enabling the rational design of the adhesion properties of E. coli. SAs have a modular structure comprising a stable β-domain for outer membrane anchoring and surface-exposed immunoglobulin domains with high affinity and specificity that can be selected from large repertoires. SAs are constitutively and stably expressed in an E. coli strain lackin...

Major progress has been made in the basic research of leptospirosis a global zoonotic disease. Recent knowledge on the genome of L. interrogans and the emergence of new genetic tools for comparative genetic studies have further developed research into the genetic pathogenesis of this illness. Many of these studies have compared the putative pathogenicity factors found in L. interrogans, with re...

Xylella fastidiosa is a gram-negative, xylem-inhabiting, plant-pathogenic bacterium responsible for several important diseases including Pierce's disease (PD) of grapevines. The bacteria form biofilms in grapevine xylem that contribute to the occlusion of the xylem vessels. X. fastidiosa haemagglutinin (HA) proteins are large afimbrial adhesins that have been shown to be crucial for biofilm for...

Understanding the molecular parameters that regulate cross-species transmission and host adaptation of potential pathogens is crucial to control emerging infectious disease. Although microbial pathotype diversity is conventionally associated with gene gain or loss, the role of pathoadaptive nonsynonymous single-nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) has not been systematically evaluated. Here, our g...