Function
The capsule is considered a virulence factor because it enhances the ability of bacteria to cause disease (i.e. prevents phagocytosis). The capsule can protect cells from engulfment by eukaryotic cells, such as macrophages. A capsule-specific antibody may be required for phagocytosis to occur. Capsules also contain water which protects bacteria against desiccation. They also exclude bacterial viruses and most hydrophobic toxic materials such as detergents. There are 14 different capsule types, which each impart their own specific antigenicity. Immunity to one capsule type does not result in immunity to the other types. Capsules also help cells adhere to surfaces.
Read more about this topic: Bacterial Capsule
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward.”
—Margaret Fairless Barber (1869–1901)
“The mother’s and father’s attitudes toward the child correspond to the child’s own needs.... Mother has the function of making him secure in life, father has the function of teaching him, guiding him to cope with those problems with which the particular society the child has been born into confronts him.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)
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