Adhesion to nanofibers drives cell membrane remodeling through 1D wetting

The shape of cellular membranes is highly regulated by a set of conserved mechanisms. These mechanisms can be manipulated by bacterial pathogens to infect cells. Human endothelial cell plasma membrane remodeling by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis is thought to be essential during the blood phase of meningococcal infection, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Here we show that plasma membrane remodeling occurs independently of F-actin, along meningococcal type IV pili fibers, by a novel physical mechanism we term "one-dimensional" membrane wetting. We provide a theoretical model that gives the physical basis of 1D wetting and show that this mechanism occurs in model membranes interacting with model nanofibers, and in human cells interacting with model extracellular matrices. It is thus a new general principle driving the interaction of cells with their environment at the nanoscale that is diverted by meningococcus during infection.