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.

Author affiliations

1. Biozentrum der Universität Basel, Klingelbergstr. 50–70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland, and Christian de Duve Institute of Cellular Pathology, Université de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
   Email: guy.cornelis@unibas.ch