T. Tobe et al., "An extensive repertoire of type III secretion effectors in Escherichia coli O157 and the role of lambdoid phages in their dissemination," Proc Nat Acad Sci, 103:14941-6, 2006. (Cited in 38 papers.)
Some virulent bacteria infect their host by injecting havoc-wreaking "effector proteins" through a syringe-like multiprotein complex, called type III secretion. To find out whether all the elements of type III secretion are encoded together in the bacterial genome, Mark Pallen of University of Birmingham and colleagues used bioinformatics and translocation assays to identify 39 effector proteins encoded throughout the genome of a particularly virulent strain of E. coli O157:H7, called Sakai.
Pallen's team classified the proteins into more than 20 families - the largest of which, containing 14 members, was completely uncharacterized. Since they searched by homology, there may be even more effectors to be found, Pallen notes.
The study established the diversity of effector ...
