Bacterial secretion articles from across Nature Portfolio

In this Review, Toyofuku, Schild, Kaparakis-Liaskos and Eberl discuss the different types of bacterial membrane vesicle, how they are formed, their structure and composition and their diverse functions.

Bacteria can affect cellular processes in other bacteria and in eukaryotic cells by injecting effectors using a type VI secretion system (T6SS). Here, Sá-Pessoa et al. describe how a T6SS effector from the bacterial pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae triggers the fragmentation of the mitochondrial network in eukaryotic cells.

The bacterium Brucella abortus is an intracellular pathogen that modulates autophagy in host cells. Here, the authors identify two B. abortus effectors that interact with host protease SENP3, thus promoting cytoplasmic accumulation of nucleolar proteins associated with ribosomal biogenesis and facilitating intracellular replication of the pathogen

Bacteria can deliver toxic effector proteins into the cytosol of neighboring cells. Here, the authors show that Yersinia pseudotuberculosis secretes an effector that modulates gene expression in neighboring cells of the same species and inhibits the growth of other competitors.