HOW BACTERIA STICK
HOW BACTERIA STICK
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DOI：
10.1038/scientificamerican0178-86
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发表时间：
1978-01-01
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
CHENG, KJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
COSTERTON, JW;GEESEY, GG;CHENG, KJ
细菌坚韧地粘在脸上，从人类的牙齿或肺和奶牛的肠道，到淹没在快速流动的溪流中的岩石，它们往往具有精致的特异性。它们是通过一团缠绕在一起的多糖纤维或分枝糖分子来实现这一点的，这些纤维从细菌表面延伸出来，形成一个毛毡状的“糖萼”，包围着一个单独的细胞或一群细胞。糖萼介导的黏附决定了细菌在大多数自然环境中的特定位置；更具体地说，它是从龋齿到肺炎等细菌疾病的发生和发展的主要阻止因素。这些主要的-和。事后看来，相当明显--关于细菌细胞表面的事实直到过去十年才为人所知。具有讽刺意味的是，细菌糖萼及其功能被发现较晚的主要原因是微生物学家长期依赖于一种其他方面非常有效的研究系统：个体的纯实验室培养(左)来自典型的纯实验室培养的大肠杆菌；包被糖的细菌(右)是来自受感染的人膀胱的假单胞菌细胞。在这两种制备物中，细胞被任何一种多囊摄取的Ru红染色。糖衣纤维的存在。直到最近，细菌糖萼一直被忽视，因为熟悉的纯实验室菌株不需要它，因此不能制造它。
Bacteria stick, tenaciously and often with exquisite specificity, to sur faces ranging from the human tooth or lung and the intestine of a cow to a rock submerged in a fast-moving stream. They do so by means of a mass of tangled fibers of polysaccharides, or branching sugar molecules, that extend from the bacterial surface and form a feltlike" glycocalyx" surrounding an in dividual cell or a colony of cells. The adhesion mediated by the glycocalyx determines particular locations of bac teria in most natural environments; more specifically, it is a major determi nant in the initiation and progression of bacterial diseases ranging from dental caries to pneumonia. These major-and. with the benefit of hindsight, rather obvious-facts about the bacterial cell surface have become known only within the past decade. Ironically the main reason for the late discovery of the bacterial glycocalyx and its functions was the long reliance by microbiologists on an otherwise emi nently effective investigative system: the pure laboratory culture of an individualNAKED BACTERIA (left) are from a typical pure laboratory culture of Escherichia coli; the glycocalyx· coated bacteria (right) are Pseudomollas cells from an iufected human bladder. In both preparations tbe cells were stained witb ruthenium red, which is taken up by any polysac. charide glycocalyx fibers that are present. The bacterial glycocalyx was ignored until recently because the familiar pure laboratory strains do not need it and therefore do not fabricate it.