Thin, hairlike appendages, 1 to 20 microns in length and often occurring in large numbers, present on the cells of gram-negative bacteria, particularly Enterobacteriaceae and Neisseria. Unlike flagella, they do not possess motility, but being protein (pilin) in nature, they possess antigenic and hemagglutinating properties. They are of medical importance because some fimbriae mediate the attachment of bacteria to cells via adhesins (ADHESINS, BACTERIAL). Bacterial fimbriae refer to common pili, to be distinguished from the preferred use of pili, which is confined to sex pili (PILI, SEX).

DUI

D010861 MeSH Browser

CUI

M0016855

Previous indexing

Bacterial Proteins (1966-1979); Cell Wall (1966-1979); specific bacterium (1966-1979)

History note

95; was PILI, BACTERIAL 1980-94; FIMBRIAE, BACTERIAL was see PILI, BACTERIAL 1980-94

Public note

95; was PILI, BACTERIAL 1980-94; FIMBRIAE, BACTERIAL was see PILI, BACTERIAL 1980-94