Measurement of the adhesive force between a single Klebsiella pneumoniae type 3 fimbria and collagen IV using optical tweezers

Type 3 fimbriae are important adhesive filaments that assist Klebsiella pneumoniae to establish an infection. Different MrkD adhesin variants on the fimbriae are known to display distinct adherence capability for the bacteria to bind extracellular matrix proteins, although the difference has not been determined physically. For this reason, the adhesive force between type 3 fimbriae and collagen IV were measured using optical tweezers. The measured force data displayed a periodic histogram thus Fourier analysis was applied to group it to extract the adhesive force of a single molecular pair. Specifically, we showed that grouping should begin with an offset at the first half of the period. Finally, we first present the adhesive force between each mrkD_V2-, mrkD_V3-, and mrkD_V4-expressed fimbriae and collagen IV is 2.03, 3.79, and 2.87 pN, respectively. This result can be referred to further research on mrkD allelic effect on bacteria infection.