title: Curli mediate bacterial adhesion to fibronectin via tensile multiple bonds.
abstract: Many enteric bacteria including pathogenic Escherichia coli and Salmonella strains produce curli fibers that bind to host surfaces, leading to bacterial internalization into host cells. By using a nanomechanical force-sensing approach, we obtained real-time information about the distribution of molecular bonds involved in the adhesion of curliated bacteria to fibronectin. We found that curliated E. coli and fibronectin formed dense quantized and multiple specific bonds with high tensile strength, resulting in tight bacterial binding. Nanomechanical recognition measurements revealed that approximately 10 bonds were disrupted either sequentially or simultaneously under force load. Thus the curli formation of bacterial surfaces leads to multi-bond structural components of fibrous nature, which may explain the strong mechanical binding of curliated bacteria to host cells and unveil the functions of these proteins in bacterial internalization and invasion.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Gruberstrasse 40, 4020 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Yoo Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Gruberstrasse 40, 4020 Linz, Austria.|Center for Advanced Bioanalysis (CBL), Gruberstrasse 40, 4020 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hubauer-Brenner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Gruberstrasse 40, 4020 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Hermann J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Gruber
authors.affiliation: Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411, Singapore.
authors.forename: Yidan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Gruberstrasse 40, 4020 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Traxler
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Gruberstrasse 40, 4020 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Siligan
authors.affiliation: Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411, Singapore.|School of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440746, Korea.
authors.forename: Sungsu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Gruberstrasse 40, 4020 Linz, Austria.|Center for Advanced Bioanalysis (CBL), Gruberstrasse 40, 4020 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hinterdorfer