Effect of chemotaxis on the interaction of cholera vibrios with intestinal mucosa.

Earlier reports from this laboratory have shown that chemotaxis is an important mechanism that expedites the in vitro association of cholera vibrios with intestinal slices and that affects the in vivo colonization and virulence of these bacteria to a significant degree. The data reported in the present communication indicate that there appears to be a chemotatic gradient attracting cholera vibrios not only to the surface of the mucus gel, but that this gradient continues for at least a considerable distance toward the base of the villi. It is shown further that a strain of Vibrio cholerae was attracted by all 20 amino acids tested, in contrast to Escherichia coli AW405 which is repelled by several of these. Finally, experiments are described that show that superior in vivo colonization of chemotatic vibrios (compared to nonchemotactic mutants) was correlated with a significantly higher degree of mucosal association. Such increased mucosal association of chemotatic vibrios has previously been shown only with mucosal slices in vitro.