The majority of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli strains produce the E. coli common pilus when adhering to cultured epithelial cells

Fimbrial Adhesins Produced by Atypical Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli Strains

“…Several reports have previously shown that this gene is highly conserved among the different intestinal and extraintestinal E. coli pathotypes, including commensal strains (4,5,35,36). A recent gene search study with Brazilian aEPEC strains showed that ecpA was present in all strains displaying an LAL pattern on HEp-2 cells (42).…”

“…This pilus was first documented in association with strains of E. coli responsible for causing meningitis or septicemia (newborn meningitis E. coli [NMEC]) and was originally named MAT (meningitis associated and temperature regulated) (35). Knockout ecpA mutants of EHEC, EPEC, and EAEC are less adherent to host cells than ECPproducing strains (4,36,40). Likewise, NMEC strains with deletion of the ecp operon are incapable of producing biofilms (24).…”

The fimbriae activator MatA switches off motility in Escherichia coli by repression of the flagellar master operon flhDC

“…Proteus mirabilis, Salmonella enterica and E. coli, harbour regulatory systems for reciprocal regulation of these traits (Clegg & Hughes, 2002;Li et al, 2001;Ogasawara et al, 2011;Pesavento et al, 2008;Saini et al, 2010;Simm et al, 2004). We have previously described the common and conserved Mat (meningitis-associated and temperatureregulated) fimbria (Pouttu et al, 2001) [also called ECP (E. coli common pilus); Rendó n et al., 2007], which has host cell-adhesive (Avelino et al, 2010;Blackburn et al, 2009;Lasaro et al, 2009;Rendó n et al, 2007;Saldaña et al, 2009) and biofilm-promoting (Lehti et al, 2010) properties, and is a critical colonization determinant for a probiotic E. coli strain in the intestine of the infant mouse (Lasaro et al, 2009). The fimbrillin subunit MatB is an abundant surface protein on meningitis-associated IHE 3034 cells from a biofilm (Lehti et al, 2010).…”

Escherichia coli Common Pilus (ECP) Targets Arabinosyl Residues in Plant Cell Walls to Mediate Adhesion to Fresh Produce Plants

“…Unusually for classical tip adhesins, EcpD can be polymerized independently, which requires an N-terminal extension in EcpD, or with the major pilin domain (18). Several roles have been described for ECP, including binding to cultured human epithelial cells (16,17,20), colonization of infant mice (21), and biofilm development through interorganelle binding of EcpA (22). The regulator EcpR represses the flagellar master operon flhDC, supporting the role for EcpA in biofilms (23).…”

“…The ecp operon is ubiquitous across E. coli and even conserved for some other enteric species (15)(16)(17)(18)(19). ECP belongs to the chaperoneusher family encoded by the ecpRABCDE operon where EcpA encodes the pilin domain and EcpD encodes the polymerized tip adhesin.…”