Lien Yun-Wei, Lai Erh-Min
Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia SinicaTaipei, Taiwan.
Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, National Taiwan UniversityTaipei, Taiwan.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2017 Jun 15;7:254. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2017.00254. eCollection 2017.
The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a nanomachine deployed by many Gram-negative bacteria as a weapon against eukaryotic hosts or prokaryotic competitors. It assembles into a bacteriophage tail-like structure that can transport effector proteins into the environment or target cells for competitive survival or pathogenesis. T6SS effectors have been identified by a variety of approaches, including knowledge/hypothesis-dependent and discovery-driven approaches. Here, we review and discuss the methods that have been used to identify T6SS effectors and the biological and biochemical functions of known effectors. On the basis of the nature and transport mechanisms of T6SS effectors, we further propose potential strategies that may be applicable to identify new T6SS effectors.
VI型分泌系统（T6SS）是许多革兰氏阴性菌所利用的一种纳米机器，可作为对抗真核宿主或原核竞争者的武器。它组装成噬菌体尾样结构，能够将效应蛋白转运到环境或靶细胞中，以实现竞争性生存或致病作用。通过多种方法已鉴定出T6SS效应蛋白，包括基于知识/假设的方法和发现驱动的方法。在此，我们综述并讨论了用于鉴定T6SS效应蛋白的方法以及已知效应蛋白的生物学和生化功能。基于T6SS效应蛋白的性质和转运机制，我们进一步提出了可能适用于鉴定新T6SS效应蛋白的潜在策略。
