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Fimbriae, Bacterial MeSH Descriptor Data 2025


MeSH Heading
Fimbriae, Bacterial
Tree Number(s)
A11.284.180.285
A20.843
Unique ID
D010861
RDF Unique Identifier
http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D010861
Scope Note
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).
Entry Version
FIMBRIAE BACT
Entry Term(s)
Bacterial Fimbria
Bacterial Fimbriae
Bacterial Pili
Bacterial Pilus
Common Fimbria
Common Fimbriae
Common Pili
Common Pilus
Fimbria, Bacterial
Pili, Bacterial
Pili, Common
Pilus, Bacterial
Previous Indexing
Bacterial Proteins (1966-1979)
Cell Wall (1966-1979)
specific bacterium (1966-1979)
See Also
Adhesins, Bacterial
Public MeSH Note
95; was PILI, BACTERIAL 1980-94; FIMBRIAE, BACTERIAL was see PILI, BACTERIAL 1980-94
History Note
95; was PILI, BACTERIAL 1980-94; FIMBRIAE, BACTERIAL was see PILI, BACTERIAL 1980-94
Date Established
1980/01/01
Date of Entry
1979/01/04
Revision Date
2013/07/09
Fimbriae, Bacterial Preferred
Bacterial Pilus Related
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