Relationship Between Bacterial Cell Surfaces and Adhesins

Abstract

The central dogma of bacterial adhesion requires that the adhesin(s) function from the bacterial surface. In most cases, the adhesins are assembled on the surface, but in a few cases, the adhesins are initially secreted in the soluble form and then associate with the bacterial surface (Tuomanen, 1986; Baker et al., 1991; Wentworth et al., 1991). In either case, the adhesin must dock or anchor on the bacterial surface before it can participate in adhesive processes. Because adhesion is a property of most bacteria, especially of tissue-colonizing bacteria, it follows that evolution has selected specific structures that function as adhesins or onto which adhesins can assemble. In this chapter, a concise review of bacterial surface structures, with special emphasis on macromolecules involved in adhesion, is given. More comprehensive discussions of the bacterial cell surface are provided elsewhere (Rogers et al., 1980; Nikaido and Vaara, 1985; Krell and Beveridge, 1987; Doyle and Sonnenfeld, 1989; Handley, 1990; Hancock, 1991; Irvin, 1990; Gilbert et al., 1991).