Adhesion of Enteropathogenic, Enterotoxigenic, and Commensal Escherichia coli to the Major Zymogen Granule Membrane Glycoprotein 2
Christin Bartlitz, Rafał Kolenda, Jarosław Chilimoniuk, Krzysztof Grzymajło, Stefan Rödiger, Rolf Bauerfeind, Aamir Ali, Veronika Tchesnokova, Dirk Roggenbuck, Peter Schierack
Abstract
Infection by pathogenic bacteria, such as certain Escherichia coli pathotypes, results in diarrhea in mammals. Pathogens, including zoonotic agents, can infect different hosts or show host specificity. There are Escherichia coli strains which are frequently transmitted between humans and animals, whereas other Escherichia coli strains tend to colonize only one host. This host specificity is still not fully understood. We show that glycoprotein 2 is a selective receptor for particular Escherichia coli strains or variants of the adhesin FimH but not a selector for a species-specific Escherichia coli group. We demonstrate that GP2 is involved in the regulation of colonization and infection and thus represents a molecule of interest for the prevention or treatment of disease.