Phenomena of Bacterial Adhesion

When we use direct microscopic techniques to examine bacteria growing in natural and pathogenic ecosystems, we are forcibly struck by the profound differences between these organisms and cells within derived in vitro laboratory cultures. The development of a series of new techniques for the stabilization and visualization of bacterial surface structures has intensified these differences because, as we come to understand bacterial surface structures more fully, we see that they comprise a very complex and fluid interface with the environment which the bacterium must maintain in order to survive amid the ubiquitous antibacterial agents and factors in nature.