Anatomy

Bacterial Fimbriae

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).

National Library of MedicineMedical Subject Headings2026

Structured Summary

Abstract

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).

MeSH Record

Classification

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MeSH Record

Synonyms

15 entry terms
  • Bacterial Fimbria
  • Common Fimbria
  • Common Fimbriae
  • Common Pili
  • Common Pilus
  • Fimbria, Bacterial
  • Fimbriae, Bacterial
  • Pili, Common
  • Fimbria, Common
  • Fimbriae, Common
  • Pilus, Common
  • Bacterial Pili
  • Bacterial Pilus
  • Pili, Bacterial
  • Pilus, Bacterial

MeSH Record

Aspects Covered

15 allowable subheadings

Indexed with the subheadings chemistry, classification, drug effects, enzymology, genetics, immunology, metabolism, microbiology, parasitology, pathology, physiology, radiation effects, transplantation, ultrastructure, virology.

MeSH Record

History Note

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

MeSH Record

Previous Indexing

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

MeSH Hierarchy

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AMA Style

References

  1. National Library of Medicine. Bacterial Fimbriae. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). 2026. Unique ID D010861. http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/2026/D010861
  2. Bacterial Fimbriae. In: Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fimbria_(bacteriology)
  3. Bacterial Fimbriae. In: Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1810775