Receptor-binding function of type 1 pili effects bladder colonization by a clinical isolate of Escherichia coli.
The role of type 1 pili in promoting bladder colonization was examined by constructing two mutant strains of a clinical Escherichia coli isolate. One mutant was isogenic to the parental strain save for a lesion in a gene required for pilus receptor binding; the other mutant was isogenic save for a lesion in the gene encoding the pilus structural subunit. Using mixed infections of the parental and mutant strains in an ascending rat cystitis model, we found that type 1-piliated mutants that lacked the receptor-binding function were as ineffective in bladder colonization as were mutants lacking the entire organelle.
D000268:Adhesiveness; D000818:Animals; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines / Q000276:immunology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D051381:Rats; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic / Q000378:metabolism*; D001743:Urinary Bladder / Q000382:microbiology*
D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic; C037872:pili, bacterial receptor