Adherence of isogenic flagellum-negative mutants of Helicobacter pylori and Helicobacter mustelae to human and ferret gastric epithelial cells

Isogenic flagellum-negative mutants of Helicobacter pylori and Helicobacter mustelae were screened for their ability to adhere to primary human and fe rret gastric epithelial cells, respectively. We also evaluated the adherenc e of an H. pylori strain with a mutation in the flbA gene, a homologue of t he flbF/lcrD family of genes known to be involved in the regulation of H. p ylori flagellar biosynthesis. H, pylori and H. mustelae mutants deficient i n production of FlaA or FlaB and mutants deficient in the production of bot h FlaA and FlaB showed no reduction in adherence to primary human or ferret gastric epithelial cells compared with the wild-type parental strains. How ever, adherence of the H. pylori flbA mutant to human gastric cells was sig nificantly reduced compared to the adherence of the wild-type strain. These results show that flagella do not play a direct role in promoting adherenc e of H. pylori or H. mustelae to gastric epithelial cells. However, genes i nvolved in the regulation of H. pylori flagellar biosynthesis may also regu late the production of an adhesin.