Bacterial Adhesion: Chemistry, Biology and Physics (Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology Book 715)

Adhesion plays a major role in the bacterial lifestyle. Bacteria can adhere to organic and inorganic surfaces, to each other, and of course to host cells during pathogenesis. The focus of this book is: how are such adhesion phenomena best studied? Microbial genetics experiments have greatly enhanced our knowledge of what bacterial factors are involved in adhesion. For numerous reasons, though, biochemical and structural biology knowledge of the molecular interactions involved in adhesion are limited. One major problem has been a lack of interdisciplinary research and understanding in the field. On the one hand, the microbiologists lack detailed knowledge of the biophysical possibilities and have limited access to the frequently expensive instrumentation involved while on the other hand, the experts in these methods frequently do not have access to the biological materials, nor do they necessarily understand the biological questions to be answered. The purpose of this book is thus to overcome this gap in communication between researchers in biology, chemistry and physics and to display the many ways and means to investigate bacterial adhesion. We hope to stimulate new and ground-breaking research. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Adhesins of Human Pathogens from the Genus Yersinia ....Pages 1-15 Adhesive Mechanisms of Salmonella enterica ....Pages 17-34 Adhesion Mechanisms of Borrelia burgdorferi ....Pages 35-49 Adhesins of Bartonella spp.....Pages 51-70 Adhesion Mechanisms of Plant-Pathogenic Xanthomonadaceae ....Pages 71-89 Adhesion by Pathogenic Corynebacteria....Pages 91-103 Adhesion Mechanisms of Staphylococci....Pages 105-123 Protein Folding in Bacterial Adhesion: Secretion and Folding of Classical Monomeric Autotransporters....Pages 125-142 Structure and Biology of Trimeric Autotransporter Adhesins....Pages 143-158 Crystallography and Electron Microscopy of Chaperone/Usher Pilus Systems....Pages 159-174 Crystallography of Gram-Positive Bacterial Adhesins....Pages 175-195 The Nonideal Coiled Coil of M Protein and Its Multifarious Functions in Pathogenesis....Pages 197-211 Bacterial Extracellular Polysaccharides....Pages 213-226 Carbohydrate Mediated Bacterial Adhesion....Pages 227-240 The Application of NMR Techniques to Bacterial Adhesins....Pages 241-256 Electron Microscopy Techniques to Study Bacterial Adhesion....Pages 257-269 EM Reconstruction of Adhesins: Future Prospects....Pages 271-284 Atomic Force Microscopy to Study Intermolecular Forces and Bonds Associated with Bacteria....Pages 285-299 Assessing Bacterial Adhesion on an Individual Adhesin and Single Pili Level Using Optical Tweezers....Pages 301-313 Short Time-Scale Bacterial Adhesion Dynamics....Pages 315-331 Deciphering Biofilm Structure and Reactivity by Multiscale Time-Resolved Fluorescence Analysis....Pages 333-349 Inhibition of Bacterial Adhesion on Medical Devices....Pages 351-367 Erratum....Pages E1-E1 Back Matter....Pages 369-374 The focus of this books is: how are such adhesion phenomena best studied? Microbial genetics experiments have greatly enhanced our knowledge of what bacterial factors are involved in adhesion. For numerous reasons, though, biochemical and structural biology knowledge of the molecular interactions involved in adhesion are limited. One major problem has been a lack of interdisciplinary research and understanding in the field. On the one hand, the microbiologists lack detailed knowledge of the biophysical possibilities, and have limited access to the frequently expensive instrumentation involved while on the other hand, the experts in these methods frequently do not have access to the biological materials, nor do they necessarily understand the biological questions to be answered. The purpose of this book is thus to overcome this gap in communication between researchers in biology, chemistry, and physics, and to display the many ways and means to investigate bacterial adhesion, and so, we hope to stimulate newand ground-breaking research. Book jacket Over the last few years, bacterial adhesion has become a more and more important and active scientific area, but the field lacks communication and scientific exchange between medical and microbiology researchers who work with the relevant biological systems, and biochemists, structural biologists and physicists, who know and understand the physical methods best suited to investigate the phenomenon at the molecular level. The field consequently would benefit from a cross-disciplinary conference enabling such communication. This book tries to bridge the gap between the disciplines. Focusing on how best to study bacterial adhesion, this volume helps bridge the communication divide between biologists, chemists and physics researchers and aims at stimulating fresh and groundbreaking research into this essential function of bacteria.