Fimbriae, Bacterial

Thin, hairlike appendages, 1 to 20 microns in length and often occurring in large numbers, present on the cells of gram-negative bacteria, particularly Enterobacteriaceae and Neisseria. Unlike flagella, they do not possess motility, but being protein (pilin) in nature, they possess antigenic and hemagglutinating properties. They are of medical importance because some fimbriae mediate the attachment of bacteria to cells via adhesins (ADHESINS, BACTERIAL). Bacterial fimbriae refer to common pili, to be distinguished from the preferred use of pili, which is confined to sex pili (PILI, SEX).

Year introduced: 1995

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Tree Number(s): A11.284.180.285, A20.843

MeSH Unique ID: D010861

Entry Terms:

• Bacterial Fimbria
• Fimbria, Bacterial
• Bacterial Fimbriae
• Common Fimbria
• Fimbria, Common
• Common Fimbriae
• Fimbriae, Common
• Common Pilus
• Pilus, Common
• Common Pili
• Pili, Common
• Bacterial Pilus
• Pilus, Bacterial
• Bacterial Pili
• Pili, Bacterial

Previous Indexing:

• Bacterial Proteins (1966-1979)
• Cell Wall (1966-1979)
• specific bacterium (1966-1979)

See Also:

• Adhesins, Bacterial

All MeSH Categories
Anatomy Category
Cells
Cellular Structures
Cell Surface Extensions
Fimbriae, Bacterial

All MeSH Categories
Anatomy Category
Bacterial Structures
Fimbriae, Bacterial