PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Christian Spengler AU - Erik Maikranz AU - Bernhard Glatz AU - Michael Andreas Klatt AU - Hannah Heintz AU - Markus Bischoff AU - Ludger Santen AU - Andreas Fery AU - Karin Jacobs TI - The adhesion capability of <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> cells is heterogeneously distributed over the cell envelope AID - 10.1101/2021.01.05.425282 DP - 2023 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2021.01.05.425282 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/05/15/2021.01.05.425282.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/05/15/2021.01.05.425282.full AB - Understanding and controlling microbial adhesion is an important biomedical problem. However, many properties of the adhesion process of bacteria are still unknown, for example the distribution of adhesive strength over the cell wall. While a patchy colloid model for adhesion has been developed recently for Gram-negative Escherichia coli cells, a comparable model for Grampositive cells is unknown. Here, we use single-cell force spectroscopy to measure the adhesion of Staphylococcus aureus at different positions on tailored surfaces. We find heterogeneous adhesion profiles with varying degrees of intensity. By comparing these results to simulations, we find that locally increased adhesion can be explained by several distinct spots of high adhesion capabilities, similar to the patchy colloid model. Only for the underlying profile without local adhesive spots simple geometric considerations are insufficient. Rather, strong angle-dependent molecule-substratum interactions are necessary to explain the bathtub-like adhesion profiles seen for Staphylococcus aureus on a sinusoidal surface. We discuss implications of our results for the development of new materials and the design and analysis of future studies.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.