Structures
Through the mechanisms of evolution, different species of bacteria have developed different solutions to the problem of attaching receptor specific proteins to the bacteria surface. Today many different types and subclasses of bacterial adhesins may be observed in the literature.
The typical structure of a bacterial adhesion is that of a fimbria or pili. The bacterial adhesion consists primarily of an intramembranous structural protein which provides a scaffold upon which several extracellular adhesins may be attached. However, as in the case of the CFA1 fimbriae, the structural protein itself can sometimes act as an adhesion if a portion of the protein extends into the ECM.
Read more about this topic: Bacterial Adhesin
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