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Updated: Apr 16, 2026

A Visual Assay to Monitor T6SS-mediated Bacterial Competition
Published on: March 20, 2013
Composition, function, and regulation of T6SS in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Lihua Chen1, Yaru Zou1, Pengfei She1
1Department of Medicine Clinical Laboratory, The Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha 410013, Hunan, PR China.
Abstract:
Bacterial cells can communicate with their surrounding environment through secretion systems. Type VI secretion system (T6SS) is one of the most recently discovered secretion systems, which is distributed widely in Gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), an important opportunistic pathogen. This protein secretion system shares similarity with the puncturing device of bacteriophages in structure. P. aeruginosa is an important opportunistic pathogen and distributes widely in diverse environment. T6SS is beneficial to survival advantage of P. aeruginosa by delivering toxins to its neighboring pathogens and translocating protein effectors into the host cells. T6SS is also the virulence factor and takes part in biofilm formation of P. aeruginosa. The functions of T6SS in P. aeruginosa are regulated at transcriptional, posttranscriptional and posttranslational levels by diverse mechanisms. This article reviews the latest progress in the structure, effector proteins, biological function, and regulation mechanisms of P. aeruginosa T6SS.
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