Type IV Pili, Transient Bacterial Aggregates, and Virulence of Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli
10.1126/science.280.5372.2114
Crossref journal-article
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Science (221)
Abstract

Type IV bundle-forming pili of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli are required for the localized adherence and autoaggregation phenotypes. Whether these pili are also required for virulence was tested in volunteers by inactivating bfpA or bfpT ( perA ) encoding, respectively, the pilus subunit and the bfp operon transcriptional activator. Both mutants caused significantly less diarrhea. Mutation of the bfpF nucleotide-binding domain caused increased piliation, enhanced localized adherence, and abolished the twitching motility–dispersal phase of the autoaggregation phenotype. The bfpF mutant colonized the human intestine but was about 200-fold less virulent. Thus, BfpF is required for dispersal from the bacterial aggregate and for full virulence.

Authors 7
  1. David Bieber (first)
  2. Sandra W. Ramer (additional)
  3. Cheng-Yen Wu (additional)
  4. William J. Murray (additional)
  5. Toru Tobe (additional)
  6. Rosemary Fernandez (additional)
  7. Gary K. Schoolnik (additional)
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  32. Scanning electron microscopy was performed at the Microscope and Graphic Imaging Center California State University Hayward (N. R. Smith Director) and at the SETI Institute NASA Ames Research Center. The studies of volunteers were performed in the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at Stanford University Medical Center. Supported by Health and Human Services grants 1R03-DK52038 and 1R01-AI39521 from the National Institutes of Health and by Health and Human Services grant M01-RR00070 from the General Clinical Research Program National Institutes of Health. We thank D. Kaiser B. Stocker and B. W. Brown for helpful suggestions and critical reading of the manuscript; R. Valdivia and S. Falkow for providing the GFP plasmid; S. R. Kushner for providing pWKS plasmids; J. Giron for providing the BFP antiserum; J. Engel for the suggestion to use GFP to mark the individual bacteria; the nursing staff of the GCRC and the volunteers for their participation in the study; and N. Smith and K. Kato for their advice and generous use of the SEMs.
Dates
Type When
Created 23 years, 1 month ago (July 27, 2002, 5:37 a.m.)
Deposited 1 year, 7 months ago (Jan. 12, 2024, 11:39 p.m.)
Indexed 4 days ago (Aug. 29, 2025, 6:44 a.m.)
Issued 27 years, 2 months ago (June 26, 1998)
Published 27 years, 2 months ago (June 26, 1998)
Published Print 27 years, 2 months ago (June 26, 1998)
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@article{Bieber_1998, title={Type IV Pili, Transient Bacterial Aggregates, and Virulence of Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli}, volume={280}, ISSN={1095-9203}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.280.5372.2114}, DOI={10.1126/science.280.5372.2114}, number={5372}, journal={Science}, publisher={American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}, author={Bieber, David and Ramer, Sandra W. and Wu, Cheng-Yen and Murray, William J. and Tobe, Toru and Fernandez, Rosemary and Schoolnik, Gary K.}, year={1998}, month=jun, pages={2114–2118} }