Type VI secretion effectors: poisons with a purpose

By Alistair B. Russell, S. B. Peterson, J. D. Mougous. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2014

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The type VI secretion system (T6SS) mediates interactions between a broad range of Gram-negative bacterial species. Recent studies have led to a substantial increase in the number of characterized T6SS effector proteins and a more complete and nuanced view of the adaptive importance of the system. Although the T6SS is most often implicated in antagonism, in this Review, we consider the case for its involvement in both antagonistic and non-antagonistic behaviours. Clarifying the roles that type VI secretion has in microbial communities will contribute to broader efforts to understand the importance of microbial interactions in maintaining human and environmental health, and will inform efforts to manipulate these interactions for therapeutic or environmental benefit.

Subfields: Endocrinology, Molecular Biology, Molecular Medicine

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/59eba268e0d613b0185b3d8ee9703f1cc9a31539

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Citations in the corpus

Protein Injection Machines in Bacteria (2018, positive): “target both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells and, as such, are involved in a number of biological processes including bacteria-to-bacteria warfare as well as pathogenesis toward humans, animals, and plants (Kapitein and Mogk, 2013; Russell et al., 2014) (Figure 3A).”
Structure and Function of the Bacterial Root Microbiota in Wild and Domesticated Barley (2015, background): “Furthermore, we detected positive selection for components of the T6SS, a contact-dependent transport system mediating microbe-microbe interactions (Table S4; Russell et al., 2014).”
Bacterial Secretion Systems – An overview (2016, background): “T6SSs are very large, with up to 21 proteins encoded within a contiguous gene cluster (100).”
Structural basis for loading and inhibition of a bacterial T6SS phospholipase effector by the VgrG spike (2020, background): “The T6SS secretion of antibacterial effectors allows bacteria to eliminate competitors, to acquire nutrients, new DNA or metal, thus favouring the colonization of specific niches (Durand et al, 2014; Russell et al, 2014; Cianfanelli et al, 2016; Hachani et al, 2016).”
Microbial Surface Colonization and Biofilm Development in Marine Environments (2015, background): “Bacterial T6SS mutants have severe impacts on biofilm formation (718, 720).”
Microplastic-Associated Biofilms: A Comparison of Freshwater and Marine Environments (2018, background): “However, genes involved in these systems can be involved not only in virulence and infection [55] but also in conjugation [56] and interbacterial interactions [57] that are important in biofilms [58].”
Structure-Based Prototype Peptides Targeting the Pseudomonas aeruginosa Type VI Secretion System Effector as a Novel Antibacterial Strategy (2017, background): “The type VI secretion system (T6SSs) has recently garnered more attention than ever because of its widespread occurrence and significance in the ecosystem function and human health (Russell et al., 2014).”