PAAR proteins act as the ‘sorting hat’ of the type VI vsecretion system

Abstract

Bacteria exist in polymicrobial environments and compete to prevail in a niche. The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a nanomachine employed by Gram-negative bacteria to deliver effector proteins into target cells. Consequently, T6SS-positive bacteriproduce a wealth of antibacterial effector proteins to promote their survival among a prokaryotic community. These toxins arloaded onto the VgrG–PAAR spike and Hcp tube of the T6SS apparatus and recent work has started to document the specificit.