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The role of chemotaxis in the ecology of bacterial pathogens of mucosal surfaces

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the ecological role of bacterial chemotaxis has been the object of considerable speculation, little is known of its role in nature1. Moreover, chemotaxis as a factor in the interaction between the mammalian host and its indigenous or pathogenic microflora remains unexplored. Studies with Vibrio cholerae and other intestinal pathogens have shown that bacterial association with the mucosa is influenced by bacterial motility, adhesion to brush border membranes, the presence of an indigenous flora and by the inhibitory effects of local antibodies (summarised in refs 2, 3). We have shown previously that a pepsin digest of rabbit intestinal mucosa (PMS) inhibits the association of cholera vibrios and Salmonella enteritidis with rabbit intestine, and speculated that this extract was inhibitory because it neutralised the adhesion of the bacteria to a hypothetical receptor in the mucus gel3. We report here that PMS neutralises a positive chemotactic response of several bacterial species to the mucosa and in that way reduces bacterial association with intestinal tissue. Chemotaxis thus seems to be one of several mechanisms controlling interactions of bacteria with mucosal surfaces.

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ALLWEISS, B., DOSTAL, J., CAREY, K. et al. The role of chemotaxis in the ecology of bacterial pathogens of mucosal surfaces. Nature 266, 448–450 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/266448a0

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