The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Leichtag Biomedical Research Building, University of California at San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0721, USA.
Pathogenic bacteria have evolved several clever survival strategies for manipulating host cell signaling pathways to establish beneficial replicative niches within the host. Recent literature has revealed novel mechanisms adopted by bacteria to manipulate host responses. For instance, host signaling pathways that were traditionally thought to be regulated by phosphorylation events have now been shown to be irreversibly blocked by bacterially-mediated acetylation, beta-elimination, and lytic modifications. This review highlights some of the common host proteins and signaling cascades targeted by such pathogens.