Adhesion and Nanomechanics of Pili from the Probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG

Knowledge of the mechanisms by which bacterial pili adhere to host cells and withstand external forces is critical to our understanding of their functional roles and offers exciting avenues in biomedicine for controlling the adhesion of bacterial pathogens and probiotics. While much progress has been made in the nanoscale characterization of pili from Gram-negative bacteria, the adhesive and mechanical properties of Gram-positive bacterial pili...