An extensive repertoire of type III secretion effectors in Escherichia coli O157 and the role of lambdoid phages in their dissemination.

ABSTRACT: Several pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli exploit type III secretion to inject "effector proteins" into human cells, which then subvert eukaryotic cell biology to the bacterium's advantage. We have exploited bioinformatics and experimental approaches to establish that the effector repertoire in the Sakai strain of enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) O157:H7 is much larger than previously thought. Homology searches led to the identification of >60 putative effector genes. Thirteen of these were judged to be likely pseudogenes, whereas 49 were judged to be potentially functional. In total, 39 proteins were confirmed experimentally as effectors: 31 through proteomics and 28 through translocation assays. At the protein level, the EHEC effector sequences fall into >20 families. The largest fa

SUBMITTER: Tobe T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1595455 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature