Pili torti also known as 'twisted hairs' (Latin: pili=hair; torti=twisted) is a rare, congenital or acquired clinical presentation, in which the hair shaft is flattened at irregular intervals and twisted 180º along its axis. It is clinically characterized by fragile, brittle, coarse and lusterless hairs, due to uneven light reflection on the twisted hair surface. Pili torti may be associated wi...

Escherichia coli produces a phosphoethanolamine modified cellulose that is required for extracellular matrix assembly and biofilm scaffolds. A synthetic cellobiose mimics the behavior of naturally occurring polymer, inducing curli production increasing formation. The discovery has implications understanding microbial biofilms generation new cellulosic probes. More information can be found in Fu...

We have cloned and sequenced the DNA needed for production of CS2 pili in Escherichia coli K-12. The four open reading frames, cotB, cotA, cotC, and cotD, show homology with the genes needed for production of CS1 and CFA/I pili, which are also found on enterotoxigenic E. coli associated with human diarrheal disease. We also report that CotA plus CotB interact with the CS1 gene products CooC and...

The infectious ability of uropathogenic Escherichia coli relies on adhesive fibers, termed pili or fimbriae, that are expressed on the bacterial surface. Pili are multi-protein structures that are formed via a highly preserved assembly and secretion system called the chaperone-usher pathway. We have earlier reported that small synthetic compounds, referred to as pilicides, disrupt both type 1 a...

The nasopharynx of known meningococcal carriers without signs of acute meningococcal disease as well as cerebrospinal fluid from patients with acute meningococcal disease were cultured on Thayer-Martin agar. Pili were observed in negatively stained preparations of over 80% cells from all primary cultures of both nasopharnyx and cerebrospinal fluids. Although pili were abundant on cells from al...

Nature Communications 7:12217 doi: 10.1038/ncomms12217 (2016); Published 2 Aug 2016; Updated 28 Apr 2017 Two previous studies (Vargas et al. 2013, Liu et al. 2014) reporting that conductive pili are required for long-range electron transport in Geobacter sulfurreducens were inadvertently omitted from the reference list of this Article, and should have been cited in the Introduction section wher...

Gonococci of the colonial types that are associated with virulence, types 1 and 2, have pili that enable the bacteria both to attach in vitro to human epithelial cells and to resist phagocytosis by polymorphonuclear leukocytes. These piliated gonococci also agglutinate various mammalian and chicken erythrocytes. Gonococci of an avirulent colonial type, i.e., type 4, have no pili and neither att...

Pili of Bacteroides nodosus 265 (serogroup H) were expressed in Pseudomonas aeruginosa both alone and in combination with pili from B. nodosus 198 (serogroup A). Pilin genes from B. nodosus were introduced on plasmid-borne, thermoregulated expression systems, either singly or as tandem genes from two separate strains in a single transcription unit. Despite the absence of a posttranslational cle...

ABSTRACT The organization and presentation of agricultural data are greatly facilitated by databases that specially designed to allow ease entry organized display. The Pili knowledge bank together with its user-friendly interface was implemented showcase the collected from different cultivars, enabling users around world see prospects potentials. This study, in general, supports responds cha...

Upon ultraviolet (UV) stress, hyperthermophilic Sulfolobus species show a highly induced transcription of a gene cluster responsible for pili biogenesis: the UV-inducible pili operon (ups operon). This operon is involved in UV-induced pili assembly, cellular aggregation, and subsequent DNA exchange between cells. As the system increases the fitness of Sulfolobus cells after UV light exposure, w...