BOSTON-April 19, 2007-Boston--Researchers at Harvard Medical School have demonstrated that a type III secretion system (T3SS) is both functional and required for intestinal colonization of Vibrio cholerae in the infant mouse model. Although T3SS have been associated with pathogenic mechanisms in a wide variety of bacteria, until now T3SS have not been described for V. cholerae. The current study, led by John Mekalanos, PhD, chair of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, was based on his earlier research which identified a strain of V. cholerae that does not contain virulence factors but does contain components of T3SS. The new findings, which appear in the April 19 issue of Cell Host & Microbe, show that T3SS provide an alternate colonization mechanism that makes a protein analogous to formin/spire hybrid-like actin and causes changes in the cytoskeleton.
Click here to read a feature article on John Mekalanos' pursuit of a cholera vaccine.
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