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Virulence and the Environment: a Novel Role for Vibrio cholerae Toxin-Coregulated Pili in Biofilm Formation on Chitin

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Received 28 November 2004/ Accepted 28 January 2005

The toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP) of Vibrio cholerae is required for intestinal colonization and cholera toxin acquisition. Here we report that TCP mediates bacterial interactions required for biofilm differentiation on chitinaceous surfaces. We also show that undifferentiated TCP^– biofilms have reduced ecological fitness and, thus, that chitin colonization may represent an ecological setting outside the host in which selection for a host colonization factor may take place.

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