Common Themes in Bacterial Adhesion

Research in bacterial adhesion has yielded several common themes associated with bacteria—substratum interactions. Different organisms have evolved separate and distinct mechanisms of adhesion but many seem to require two mechanisms in order to survive on at least two different substrata. Physiological changes of bacteria or damage to substrata caused by the bacteria may be different in the various systems but appear to be events tightly associated with adhesion phenomena. Finally, interest in modulating bacterial adhesion revealed that there are several ways to interfere in the adhesion process in order to prevent or promote colonization on a particular substratum.