Peter Doig

Methodological approaches of assessing microbial binding to extracellular matrix components

Abstract Binding of microorganisms to a substrate is thought to be important to subsequent colonization. With pathogenic bacteria and many other microbes, binding to host and/or tissue components is thought to be a requirement in the establishment of an infection focus. Extracellular matrix components (ECMs) are one such possible attachement site. Many microbes possess specific adhesins which allow them to attach to ECMs. In this review general overviews of methodologies used for detecting, quantifying, and analyzing microbial binding to ECMs are described.