The Tip of the VgrG Spike Is Essential to Functional Type VI Secretion System Assembly in Acinetobacter baumannii.

ABSTRACT: The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a critical weapon in bacterial warfare between Gram-negative bacteria. Although invaluable for niche establishment, this machine represents an energetic burden to its host bacterium. Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen that poses a serious threat to public health due to its high rates of multidrug resistance. In some A. baumannii strains, the T6SS is transcriptionally downregulated by large multidrug resistance plasmids. Other strains, such as the clinical isolate AbCAN2, express T6SS-related genes but lack T6SS activity under laboratory conditions, despite not harboring these plasmids. This suggests that alternative mechanisms exist to repress the T6SS. Here, we used a transposon mutagenesis approach in AbCAN2 to identi

SUBMITTER: Lopez J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6960284 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature