Tracheal cytotoxin (TCT), a fragment of the bacterial surface molecule peptidoglycan (PGN),
is the factor responsible for the extensive tissue damage characteristic of whooping cough …

Tracheal cytotoxin (TCT), a naturally occurring fragment of Gram-negative peptidoglycan, is
a potent elicitor of innate immune responses in Drosophila. It induces the heterodimerization …

Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera, requires two coordinately regulated factors
for full virulence: cholera toxin (CT), a potent enterotoxin, and toxin-coregulated pili (TCP) …

Virulence of Vibrio cholerae depends on secretion of cholera toxin (CT), which is encoded
within the genome of a filamentous phage, CTXφ. Release of CT is mediated by the …

Pandemic and endemic strains of Vibrio cholerae arise from toxigenic conversion by the
CTXφ bacteriophage, a process by which CTXφ infects nontoxigenic strains of V. cholerae …

The bacterial type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a nanomachine that delivers toxic effector
proteins into target cells, killing them. In mice, we found that the Vibrio cholerae T6SS …

BACKGROUND Microbial communities are ubiquitous on Earth. The microbiota of different
habitats are diverse and have distinct functional traits, but there are common ecological …

In prokaryotes and eukaryotes, cell–cell communication and recognition of self are critical to
coordinate multicellular functions. Although kin and kind discrimination are increasingly …

Microorganisms can switch from a planktonic, free-swimming life-style to a sessile, colonial
state, called a biofilm, which confers resistance to environmental stress. Conversion …

The secretion of proteins that damage host tissue is well established as integral to the
infectious processes of many bacterial pathogens. However, recent advances in our …