What makes bacterial pathogens so sticky?

Pathogenic bacteria use a variety of cell surface adhesins to promote binding to host tissues and protein‐coated biomaterials, as well as cell–cell aggregation. These cellular interactions represent the first essential step that leads to host colonization and infection. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has greatly contributed to increase our understanding of the specific interactions at play during microbial adhesion, down to the single‐molecule...