Talk:Pilus

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[edit] fimbrium / fimbria / fimbriae?

This article owns the fimbrium redirect, yet there is a fimbria/fimbriae article. Those appear, to my layperson's eye, to be the same thing. It seems like the information about fimbrium from this article should be offloaded to the fimbria article. I'm way out of my depth with biology articles (I prefer physics), so I won't mess with what's there, beyond just making it obvious that there's a seperate fimbria article. -Eisnel 00:28, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Yep, IAAMB and fimbria is the same as pilus. However, this article seems to be a bit obsessed about the sex pilus. There are lots of pili that simply mediate attachment to the host and have no role in exchange of DNA etc.

In fact, I was thinking of changing the line saying they 'create cytoplasmic channels' or whatnot b/c they don't really do that. More like a tube or 'truss' that connects the two cell membrane surfaces. There should still be a membrane at either end of the tube. - Anonymous - 11:28 am EST Sep 13 2006

I rewrote part of the introduction and added a separate section that describes fimbriae. I also added a brief statement that fimbriae/pili are also found in Gram positive bacteria. In the last couple of years, studies have revealed pili on the surface of several streptococci. Older studies have described pili on a few other Gram positive bacteria. NighthawkJ 19:51, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] missing picture

AAAHHH! where'd that picture in this article go?! Someone please rescue it!! Adenosine | Talk 01:11, 10 December 2005 (UTC)