Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common pathological conditions in both community and hospital settings. It has been estimated that about 150 million people worldwide develop UTI each year, with high social costs in terms of hospitalizations and medical expenses. Among the common uropathogens associated to UTIs development, UroPathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is the primary...

Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the rpoS-deficient cells of E. coli K-12 BW25113 (ΔrpoS) increased the number of flagella on the cell surfaces. However, the quantitative analysis of cell colonization showed that the increased number of flagella on ΔrpoS cell surfaces did not cause the enhancement of cell colonization on the surfaces of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP) and...

The response to elevated temperature [heat shock (HS)] is highly conserved. The transcriptome of Escherichia coli K-12 has been studied under a variety of conditions while such studies involving E. coli O157:H7 are only now being conducted. To better understand the impact of HS on E. coli O157:H7, global transcript levels of strain EDL933 cells shifted from 37 to 50 degrees C for 15 min were co...

Our understanding of Escherichia coli biofilm formation in vitro is based on studies of laboratory K-12 strains grown in standard media. However, pathogenic E. coli isolates differ substantially in their genetic repertoire from E. coli K-12 and are subject to heterogeneous environmental conditions. In this study, in vitro biofilm formation of 331 nondomesticated E. coli strains isolated from he...

Protein evolution is not simply a race toward improved function. Because organisms compete for limited resources, fitness is also affected by the relative economy of an organism's proteome. Indeed, many abundant proteins contain relatively high percentages of amino acids that are metabolically less taxing for the cell to make, thus reducing cellular cost. However, not all abundant proteins are ...

The rugose (also known as wrinkled or rdar) phenotype in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium DT104 Rv has been associated with cell aggregation and the ability, at low temperature under low-osmolarity conditions, to form pellicles and biofilms. Two Tn5 insertion mutations in genes that are involved in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) synthesis, ddhC (A1-8) and waaG (A1-9), of Rv resulted in diminis...

Pili were isolated from two different strains of gonococci (33 and 2686) and demonstrated to be pure by the criteria of electron microscopy and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulfate. Each purified pili preparation was studied for its ability to inhibit; (a) binding of 124-I-labeled purified 2686 pili by antibody to 2686 pili, and (b) binding of 125-I-labeled purified 33 p...

In 2011, nearly 4,000 people in Germany were infected by Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli O104:H4 with > 22% of patients developing haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS). Genome sequencing showed the outbreak strain to be related to enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC), suggesting its high virulence results from EAEC-typical strong adherence and biofilm formation combined to Stx production....

MqsA, the antitoxin of the MqsR/MqsA toxin/antitoxin (TA) system, is a global regulator that reduces expression of several stress response genes (e.g., mqsRA, cspD, and rpoS) by binding to the promoter palindromic motif [5'-AACCT (N)₃ AGGTT-3']. We identified a similar mqsRA-like palindrome [5'-AACCT TA AGGTT-3'] 78 bp upstream of the transcription initiation site in the csgD promoter (p-csgD)....