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Subversive bacteria reveal new tricks in their cytoskeleton-hijacking arsenal

During infection, pathogenic Yersinia species secrete the antiphagocytic factor YopO (or YpkA), which contains a kinase domain and a Rho GTPase guanine nucleotide–dissociation inhibitor (GDI) domain. The structure of YopO in complex with actin, along with biochemical analyses, reveals the mechanism by which YopO uses actin to activate its kinase domain and recruit, phosphorylate and deactivate actin-assembly factors implicated in phagocytic clearance of the bacterium.

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Figure 1: Mechanism of YopO-mediated cytoskeleton disassembly.

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Acknowledgements

R.D. was supported by US National Institutes of Health R01 grants MH087950 and GM073791.

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Correspondence to Roberto Dominguez.

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Dominguez, R. Subversive bacteria reveal new tricks in their cytoskeleton-hijacking arsenal. Nat Struct Mol Biol 22, 178–179 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2976

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