Bacterial adhesion and host cell factors leading to effector protein injection by type III secretion system

Type III secretion systems (T3SS) play a crucial role for virulence in many Gram-negative bacteria. After tight bacterial contact to host cells, the T3SS injects effector proteins into the host cells, which leads to cell invasion, tissue destruction and/or immune evasion. Over the last decade several attempts were made to characterize the host-cell interactions which precede and determine effector protein injection during infection. The development of the TEM-β-lactamase reporter was an important breakthrough to achieve this goal. By this means it was demonstrated that during infection with many Gram-negative pathogens such as Salmonella, Pseudomonas or Yersinia the main targets of T3SS are leukocytes of the myeloid lineage such as neutrophils, macrophages or dendritic cells. This is due to the recruitment of these cells to the site of infection, but also due to the specific interplay between bacterial and host cells. Comprehensive studies on Yersinia pestis, Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis effector translocation show that adhesins such as Invasin (Inv), Yersinia adhesin A (YadA) and attachment and invasion locus (Ail) are critical for effector translocation. Here, mainly the complex interaction of YadA and Ail with various host cell receptor repertoires on leukocytes and the modulatory effects of serum factors direct effector translocation predominantly towards myeloid cells. The current understanding suggests that mostly protein based interactions between bacteria and host determine host cell specific effector translocation during Yersinia infection. However, for Shigella dysenteriae infection it was shown that glycan-glycan interactions can also play a critical role for the adhesion preceding effector translocation. In addition, the Shigella infection model revealed that the activation status of cells is a further criterium directing effector translocation into a distinct cell population. In this review the current understanding of the complex and species-specific interaction between bacteria and host cells leading to type III secretion is discussed.