Attaching and effacing pathogens: the effector ABC of immune subversion

The innate immune response resembles an essential barrier to bacterial infection. Many bacterial pathogens have, therefore, evolved mechanisms to evade from or subvert the host immune response in order to colonize, survive and multiply. The attaching and effacing pathogens enteropathogenic Escherichia coli, enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, Escherichia albertii and Citrobacter rodentium are Gram-negative extracellular gastrointestinal pathogens. They use a type III secretion system to inject effector proteins into the host cell to manipulate a variety of cellular processes. Over the last decade, considerable progress was made in identifying and characterizing the effector proteins of attaching and effacing pathogens that are involved in the inhibition of innate immune signaling pathways, in determining their host cell targets and elucidating the mechanisms they employ. Their functions will be reviewed here.