Comprehensive review of research in bacterial adhesion, the essential first stage of infection.

Part I. Bacterial Adhesins and Adhesive Structures: 1. Surface protein adhesins of staphylococci T. J. Foster; 2. Mechanisms of utilisation of host signalling molecules by respiratory mucosal pathogens Mumtaz Virji; 3. Surface structures of oral streptococci involved in adhesion Roderick McNab, Pauline S. Handley and Howard F. Jenkinson; 4. Regulation and function of phase variation in Escherichia coli Ian Blomfield; 5. Regulation of capsule expression Clare Taylor and Ian Roberts; 6. Role of pili in Haemophilus influenzae adherence, colonization, and disease Janet R. Gilsdorf; Part II. Effect of Adhesion on Bacterial Structure and Function: 7. Transcriptional regulation of meningococcal gene expression upon adhesion to target cells Muhamed-Kheir Taha; 8. Induction of protein secretion by Yersinia enteroclitica through contact with eukaryotic cells Dorothy E. Pierson; 9. Functional modulation of pathogenic bacteria upon contact with host target cells Andreass U. Kresse, Frank Ebel and Carlos A. Guzman; Part III. Consequences of Bacterial Adhesion for the Host: 10. Adhesion, signal transduction and mucosal inflammation Catharina Svanborg et al.; 11. Adhesion of oral spirochaetes to host cells and its cytopathogenic consequences Richard P. Ellen; 12. Interactions between enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and epithelial cells Elizabeth L. Hartland, Gad Frankel and Stuart Knutton; 13. Host cell responses to Porphyromonas gingivalis and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans Richard Lamont.