Fig. 1

Schematic representation of fibrillar adhesins domain architecture and comparison to a pilus polymer: Three well studied fibrillar adhesins from S. aureus are shown on the left. The stalk domains (blue), adhesive domains (red) and host ligand targets (not shown) differ between these proteins. All three proteins are anchored to the peptidoglycan (PG) layer by the gram positive sortase anchor motif LPxTG, here indicated with the L. On the right, a direct comparison of the Intimin fibrillar adhesin (adapted from [7]) compared to the Type 1 pilus (adapted from [8]) in E. coli is shown. Compared to the monomeric inverse autotransporter Intimin, the Type 1 pilus is polymeric with the FimH adhesive protein expressed at its tip. The fibrillar adhesin Intimin is anchored by its beta barrel domain in the outer membrane (OM)