Type 1 pili are important virulence factors of uropathogenic Escherichia coli that mediate bacterial attachment to epithelial cells in the urinary tract. The pilus rod is comprised of thousands of ...

Effective colonization of host cells by some Gram-positive bacteria often involves using lengthy, adhesive macromolecular structures called sortase-dependent pili. Among commensals, the gut-adapted ...

New atomic-level "snapshots" reveal details of how bacteria such as E. coli produce and secrete sticky appendages called pili, which help the microbes attach to and infect human cells. These crystal ...

Although proteins are usually electrically insulating, hair-like nanoscale filaments (called pili) on the surface of Geobacter bacteria exhibit metallic-like conductivity. To understand why pili are ...

A research team led by David Thanassi, Ph.D., of Stony Brook University, has used molecular biology and cryoelectron microscopy to successfully unravel the structure of bacterial appendages called P ...

Type IV pili are hair-like filaments on the surfaces of a number of pathogenic bacteria. These pili mediate many critical functions in bacterial colonization and survival in the host and are thus key ...