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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2007, p. 2690-2696, Vol. 73, No. 8
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02649-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Assessing Adhesion Forces of Type I and Type IV Pili of Xylella fastidiosa Bacteria by Use of a Microfluidic Flow Chamber ^,

Leonardo De La Fuente,¹ Emilie Montanes,² Yizhi Meng,^1, Yaxin Li,¹ Thomas J. Burr,¹ H. C. Hoch,^1* and Mingming Wu^2*

Department of Plant Pathology, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Cornell University, Geneva, New York 14456,¹ Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853²

Received 13 November 2006/ Accepted 26 January 2007

Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterium responsible for Pierce's disease in grapevines, possesses both type I and type IV pili at the same cell pole. Type IV pili facilitate twitching motility, and type I pili are involved in biofilm development. The adhesiveness of the bacteria and the roles of the two pili types in attachment to a glass substratum were evaluated using a microfluidic flow chamber in conjunction with pilus-defective mutants. The average adhesion force necessary to detach wild-type X. fastidiosa cells was 147 ± 11 pN. Mutant cells possessing only type I pili required a force of 204 ± 22 pN for removal, whereas cells possessing only type IV pili required 119 ± 8 pN to dislodge these cells. The experimental results demonstrate that microfluidic flow chambers are useful and convenient tools for assessing the drag forces necessary for detaching bacterial cells and that with specific pilus mutants, the role of the pilus type can be further assessed.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address for Mingming Wu: Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. Phone: (607) 254-8319. Fax: (607) 255-1222. E-mail: mw272{at}cornell.edu. Mailing address for H. C. Hoch: Department of Plant Pathology, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Cornell University, Geneva, NY 14456. Phone: (315) 787-2332. Fax: (315) 787-2389. E-mail: hch1{at}cornell.edu

Published ahead of print on 9 February 2007.

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Present address: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2580.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2007, p. 2690-2696, Vol. 73, No. 8
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02649-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Shi, X. Y., Dumenyo, C. K., Hernandez-Martinez, R., Azad, H., Cooksey, D. A. (2009). Characterization of Regulatory Pathways in Xylella fastidiosa: Genes and Phenotypes Controlled by gacA. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75: 2275-2283 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• De La Fuente, L., Burr, T. J., Hoch, H. C. (2008). Autoaggregation of Xylella fastidiosa Cells Is Influenced by Type I and Type IV Pili. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 74: 5579-5582 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• De La Fuente, L., Burr, T. J., Hoch, H. C. (2007). Mutations in Type I and Type IV Pilus Biosynthetic Genes Affect Twitching Motility Rates in Xylella fastidiosa. J. Bacteriol. 189: 7507-7510 [Abstract] [Full Text]