Uropathogenic Escherichia coli express pili that mediate binding to host tissue cells. We demonstrate with in situ force measuring optical tweezers that the ability of P and type 1 pili to elongate by unfolding under exposure to stress is a shared property with some differences. The unfolding force of the quaternary structures under equilibrium conditions is similar, 28 +/- 2 and 30 +/- 2 pN for P pili and type 1 pili, respectively. However, type 1 pili are found to be more rigid than P pili through their stronger layer-to-layer bonds. It was found that type 1 pili enter a dynamic regime at elongation speeds of 6 nm/s, compared to 400 nm/s for P pili; i.e., it responds faster to an external force. This possibly helps type 1 to withstand the irregular urine flow in the urethra as compared to the more constant urine flow in the upper urinary tract. Also, it was found that type 1 pili refold during retraction at two different levels that possibly could be related to several possible configurations. Our findings highlight functions that are believed to be of importance for the bacterial ability to sustain a basic antimicrobial mechanism of the host and for bacterial colonization.

A model of the elongation of P pili expressed by uropathogenic Escherichia coli exposed to stress is presented. The model is based upon the sticky chain concept, which is based upon Hooke's law for elongation of the layer-to-layer and head-to-tail bonds between neighboring units in the PapA rod and a kinetic description of the opening and closing of bonds, described by rate equations and an energy landscape model. It provides an accurate description of the elongation behavior of P pili under stress and supports a hypothesis that the PapA rod shows all three basic stereotypes of elongation/unfolding: elongation of bonds in parallel, the zipper mode of unfolding, and elongation and unfolding of bonds in series. The two first elongation regions are dominated by a cooperative bond opening, in which each bond is influenced by its neighbor, whereas the third region can be described by individual bond opening, in which the bonds open and close randomly. A methodology for a swift extraction of model parameters from force-versus-elongation measurements performed under equilibrium conditions is derived. Entities such as the free energy, the stiffness, the elastic elongation, the opening length of the various bonds, and the number of PapA units in the rod are determined.

Surface organelles (so-called pili) expressed on the bacterial membrane mediate the adhesion of Escherichia coli causing urinary tract infection. These pili possess some extraordinary elongation properties that are assumed to allow a close bacterium-to-host contact even in the presence of shear forces caused by urine flow. The elongation properties of P pili have therefore been assessed for low elongation speeds (steady-state conditions). This work reports on the behavior of P pili probed by dynamic force spectroscopy. A kinetic model for the unfolding of a helixlike chain structure is derived and verified. It is shown that the unfolding of the quaternary structure of the PapA rod takes place at a constant force that is almost independent of elongation speed for slow elongations (up to approximately 0.4 mum/s), whereas it shows a dynamic response with a logarithmic dependence for fast elongations. The results provide information about the energy landscape and reaction rates. The bond length and thermal bond opening and closure rates for the layer-to-layer bond have been assessed to approximately 0.76 nm, approximately 0.8 Hz, and approximately 8 GHz, respectively. The results also support a previously constructed sticky-chain model for elongation of the PapA rod that until now had been experimentally verified only under steady-state conditions.

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Bacterial adhesion to surfaces mediated by specific adhesion organelles that promote infections, as exemplified by the pili of uropathogenic E. coli, is studied mostly at the level of cell-cell interactions and thereby reflects the averaged behavior of multiple pili. The role of pilus rod structure has therefore only been estimated from the outcome of experiments involving large numbers of organelles at the same time. It has, however, lately become clear that the biomechanical behavior of the pilus shafts play an important, albeit hitherto rather unrecognized, role in the adhesion process. For example, it has been observed that shafts from two different strains, even though they are similar in structure, result in large differences in the ability of the bacteria to adhere to their host tissue. However, in order to identify all properties of pilus structures that are of importance in the adhesion process, the biomechanical properties of pili must be assessed at the single-molecule level. Due to the low range of forces of these structures, until recently it was not possible to obtain such information. However, with the development of force-measuring optical tweezers (FMOT) with force resolution in the low piconewton range, it has lately become possible to assess forces mediated by individual pili on single living bacteria in real time. FMOT allows for a more or less detailed mapping of the biomechanical properties of individual pilus shafts, in particular those that are associated with their elongation and contraction under stress. This Mi- nireview presents the FMOT technique, the biological model system, and results from assessment of the biomechanical properties of bacterial pili. The information retrieved is also compared with that obtained by atomic force microscopy.