Bacteria employ a specialized weapon known as the type VI secretion system to defend themselves from competing organisms. A new study reveals the molecular architecture of the type VI secretion system and highlights conserved mechanistic similarities with contractile phage tails.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Nobrega, F. L. et al. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-018-0070-8 (2018).
Taylor, N. M. I., van Raaij, M. J. & Leiman, P. G. Molec. Miocrobiol. 108, 6–15 (2018).
Russell, A. B. Nature 475, 343–347 (2011).
Russell, A. B., Peterson, S. B. & Mougous, J. D. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 12, 137–148 (2014).
Cherrak, Y. et al. Nat. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-018-0260-1 (2018).
Boyer, F., Fichant, G., Berthod, J., Vandenbrouck, Y. & Attree, I. BMC Genomics 10, 104 (2009).
Taylor, N. M. et al. Nature 533, 346–352 (2016).
Buttner, C. R., Wu, Y., Maxwell, K. L. & Davidson, A. R. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 10174–10179 (2016).
Filloux, A. & Freemont, P. Nat. Microbiol. 1, 16104 (2016).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Davidson, A.R., Maxwell, K.L. Type VI secretion system baseplate. Nat Microbiol 3, 1330–1331 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-018-0311-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-018-0311-7