A virus can stop bacteria from sharing genes for antibiotic resistance among themselves, Texas A&M AgriLife researchers have discovered. The results hint at new ways to treat infections and describe a ...

Escherichia coli—a friendly and ubiquitous bacterial resident in the guts of humans and other animals—may occasionally colonize regions outside the intestines. There, it can have serious consequences ...

Pili are filamentous surface structures that play a key role in the adhesion, colonisation and biofilm formation of Gram-positive bacteria. These multiprotein appendages are assembled through a highly ...

The discovery shows why it can be so difficult to tackle drug-resistant bacteria, but does provide a possible avenue for tackling the problem. The super-polymer structures the bacteria use to transfer ...

It is critical for bacteria to recognize surface contact and initiate physiological changes required for surface-associated lifestyles. Ubiquitous microbial appendages called pili are involved in ...

Cholera bacteria use hair-like appendages called pili to attach to surfaces. In this image, the pili are labeled with a fluorescent green dye. (Image credit: Fitnat Yildiz and Kyle Floyd) ...

Named after the Latin word pilus, for spear, pili allow bacteria to transfer genes for advantageous traits, such as drug resistance, and enhance bacteria's ability to move and to attack host cells.

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when pathogens such as bacteria develop the ability to resist the drugs designed to kill them. Now, UK researchers have uncovered the mechanism underpinning antibiotic ...

Many disease-causing bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa crawl on surfaces through a walk-like motility known as "twitching". Nanometers-wide filaments called type IV pili are known to power ...

Researchers have characterized a mechanism that allows bacteria to direct their movement in response to the mechanical properties of the surfaces the microbes move on -- a finding that could help ...

Bacteria have legs? That suggestion seemed surprising to Gerard Wong, a bioengineering professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, when his students told him they were seeing some ...