Engineering Alkane-Inducible Fimbriation in Escherichia Coli
type: CreativeWork
description: Fimbriae are small, hair-like appendages arranged on many bacteria’s outer-membrane surfaces used for binding to biotic and abiotic surfaces to resist shear forces and attach to nutrient sources. Fimbriae are important in the initial attachment of cells to a substrate as well as the subsequent irreversible attachment to a surface. In this investigation, E. coli was engineered to over-express fimbriae in response to the presence of IPTG and DCPK. The over-expression of fimbriae in E. coli resulted in a pronounced response to the agglutination of mannose-containing yeast cells, causing them to sediment from solution at a much faster rate than wild-type or fimbrial deletion strains. Furthermore, the presence of fimbriae resulted in a significantly higher partitioning of cells into hydrocarbon sources across a range of alkanes. Lastly, the presence of fimbriae was shown to be essential in the development of biofilms, where only strains expressing fimbriae resulted in biofilm formation.
abstract: Fimbriae are small, hair-like appendages arranged on many bacteria’s outer-membrane surfaces used for binding to biotic and abiotic surfaces to resist shear forces and attach to nutrient sources. Fimbriae are important in the initial attachment of cells to a substrate as well as the subsequent irreversible attachment to a surface. In this investigation, E. coli was engineered to over-express fimbriae in response to the presence of IPTG and DCPK. The over-expression of fimbriae in E. coli resulted in a pronounced response to the agglutination of mannose-containing yeast cells, causing them to sediment from solution at a much faster rate than wild-type or fimbrial deletion strains. Furthermore, the presence of fimbriae resulted in a significantly higher partitioning of cells into hydrocarbon sources across a range of alkanes. Lastly, the presence of fimbriae was shown to be essential in the development of biofilms, where only strains expressing fimbriae resulted in biofilm formation.
author: McLay, Ryan B.
language: eng
keywords: Escherichia coli, Fimbriae/pili, IPTG-inducible, DCPK-inducible, Hydrocarbons, Alkanes, Microbial adhesion to hydrocarbons (MATH), Specific biofilm formation (SBF), Yeast agglutination assay (YAA), Biofilms, Bioremediation, Fimbriation
date published: 2016-05
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:32:34Z
provider: University of Houston
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Houston

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10657/3205