Intestinal Colonization Dynamics of Vibrio cholerae
Fig 1
Model for intestinal colonization dynamics of V. cholerae.
V. cholerae may be ingested as free-living cells (i), as forming microcolonies (ii), or as part of a biofilm (iii) (A). Cells in the lumen will first come in contact with the mucus layer (B). The bacterium must reach the intestinal epithelium by penetrating through the viscous mucus layer covering it (C). Once the bacterium reaches the intestinal epithelium, we hypothesize that noncommitted (reversible) attachment occurs, mediated by adhesins such as GbpA or Mam7 (D). Subsequently, specific attachment adhesins might be produced that would allow V. cholerae to bind in a committed fashion (E), the cells multiply (F), and, once a certain concentration of cells has been reached, the toxin coregulated pilus is produced, allowing for microcolony formation and toxin production (G).