1. F4 Fimbriae Expressed by Porcine Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, an Example of an Eccentric Fimbrial System?
- Author
-
Bruno Goddeeris, Eric Cox, and Frank Verdonck
- Subjects
Phase variation ,animal structures ,Gram-negative bacteria ,biology ,Physiology ,Fimbria ,Virulence ,Cell Biology ,biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition ,bacterial infections and mycoses ,biology.organism_classification ,medicine.disease_cause ,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ,Biochemistry ,Microbiology ,Pilus ,Bacterial adhesin ,Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli ,medicine ,bacteria ,Escherichia coli ,Biotechnology - Abstract
An overwhelming number of infectious diseases in both humans and animals are initiated by bacterial adhesion to carbohydrate structures on a mucosal surface. Most bacterial pathogens mediate this adhesion by fimbriae or pili which contain an adhesive lectin subunit. The importance of fimbriae as virulence factors led to research elucidating the regulation of fimbrial expression and their molecular assembly process. This review provides an overview of the current knowledge of induction, expression and assembly of F4 (K88) fimbriae and discusses its unique as well as its identical characteristics compared to other intensively studied fimbriae or pili expressed by Escherichia coli.
- Published
- 2004