P pili in uropathogenic E. coli are composite fibres with distinct fibrillar adhesive tips.

Escherichia coli is a frequent cause of several common bacterial infections in humans and animals, including urinary tract infections, bacteraemia and bacteria-related diarrhoea and is also the main cause of neonatal meningitis. Microbial attachment to surfaces is a key event in colonization and infection and results mainly from a stereochemical fit between microbial adhesins and complementary receptors on host cells. Bacterial adhesins required for extracellular colonization by Gram-negative bacteria are often minor components of heteropolymeric fibres called pili which must be oriented in an accessible manner in these structures to be able to bind to specific receptor architectures. P pili mediate the binding of uropathogenic E. coli to a digalactoside receptor determinant present in the urinary tract epithelium. We report here that the adhesin is a component of distinct fibrillar structures present at the tips of the pili. These virulence-associated tip fibrillae are thin, flexible polymers composed mostly of repeating subunits of PapE that frequently terminate with the alpha-D-galactopyranosyl-(1-4)-beta-D-galactopyranose or Gal alpha (1-4)Gal binding PapG adhesin.     

The humoral immune response to heat shock proteins.

Humoral immune reactions to heat shock proteins (hsp) from microorganisms are one aspect of microbial infections in humans. The production of antibodies which are specific to epitopes present on procaryotic hsp leads also to the appearance of cross-reactive serum antibodies in the host organism that react with human hsp. This article discusses the consequences of such autoreactive antibodies for the host in context with the development of immune tolerance and autoimmune diseases, especially rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and in experimental animal models for arthritis such as adjuvant arthritis in rats. On the basis of epitope cross-reactivity between hsp and other host proteins, a hypothesis is presented for the development of autoimmune disease following the production of hsp-specific antibodies.     

Phenological studies of selected savanna mosses of south-western Nigeria

It was established that there is little diversity of bryophytes in the derived savanna. Mosses were found in the sampling sites, whereas liverworts were rarely observed. The reproductive methods of four dominant sexually reproducing savanna mosses —Archidium ohioense, Bryum coronatum, Fissidens minutifolius andTrachycarpidium tisserantii were monitored over two consecutive rainy seasons. Protonemal and gametophyte production were noticed in the field in March/April, and capsule dehiscence and spore dispersal occurred in September/October. The sequential stages of development, starting with gametangial production and ending with the falling of the dehisced capsules, occurred within the rainy season. However,A. ohioense andT. tisserantii did not discharge their spores easily (cleistocarpous), unlike the stegocarpous speciesB. coronatum andF. minutifolius. Water availability and possibly high humidity may have contributed to growth. The short period between sex organ formation and dehiscence of capsule seen in these studies, compared with the longer period in some temperate mosses, may be an advantage for bryophytes in a savanna environment.