The Yersinia Ysc-Yop 'type III' weaponry

Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2002 Oct;3(10):742-52. doi: 10.1038/nrm932.

Abstract

'Type III secretion'--the mechanism by which some pathogenic bacteria inject proteins straight into the cytosol of eukaryotic cells to 'anaesthetize' or 'enslave' them--was discovered in 1994. Important progress has been made in this area during the past few years: the bacterial organelles responsible for this secretion--called 'injectisomes'--have been visualized, the structures of some of the bacterial protein 'effectors' have been determined, and considerable progress has been made in understanding the intracellular action of the effectors. Type III secretion is key to the pathogenesis of bacteria from the Yersinia genus.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / physiology
  • Bacterial Proteins / chemistry
  • Bacterial Proteins / physiology
  • Humans
  • Models, Biological
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Chaperones / chemistry
  • Molecular Chaperones / physiology
  • Organelles / physiology
  • Signal Transduction
  • Yersinia / pathogenicity*
  • Yersinia / physiology*

Substances

  • Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins
  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Molecular Chaperones