User:Jontaylor115/Curli amyloid fibres

Curli amyloid fibres Curli are extracellular proteinaceous fibres produced by a range of bacteria. The fibres provide a means of adherence to biotic or abiotic surfaces and act as a molecular scaffold in biofilm formation in an intra- or inter-species manner. The fibres are formed through extracellular nucleation and polymerisation of a subunit protein, which is proposed to adopt a beta-helix structure. The resultant fibre displays many of the physicochemical properties of amyloid structure, such as Congo red staining, Thioflavin T fluorescence, and X-ray diffraction patterns indicative of cross-beta sheet structure.