ArticleThe EMBO journal2025
A widely-occurring family of pore-forming effectors broadens the impact of the Serratia Type VI secretion system.
Article in The EMBO journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- From Environmental Organism to Nosocomial Threat:Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Carbapenem-ResistantAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Tke5 is a Pseudomonas putida toxin that kills plant pathogens by depolarising membranes.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Structural insights into the antibacterial function of the Pseudomonas putida effector Tke5.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- The impact of EmrA deficiency on antibiotic-susceptibility and virulence- and stone-associated phenotypes inFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Review
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
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Abstract
Delivery of antibacterial effector proteins into competitor cells using the Type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a widespread strategy for inter-bacterial competition. While many enzymatic T6SS effectors have been described, relatively few which form pores in target cell membranes have been reported. Here, we describe a widely-occurring family of T6SS-dependent pore-forming effectors, exemplified by Ssp4 of Serratia marcescens Db10. We show in vitro that Ssp4 forms regulated pores with high selectivity for cations, and use structural models and molecular dynamics simulations to predict how these pores conduct ions. Ssp4 has a broader phylogenetic distribution and is active against a wider range of bacterial species than Ssp6, the other pore-forming effector delivered by the same T6SS, with the two effectors displaying distinct ion selectivities and impacts on intoxicated cells. Finally, identification of Ssp4-resistant mutants revealed that a mucA mutant of Pseudomonas fluorescens is protected against T6SS attacks. We propose that deployment of two distinct T6SS-dependent pore-forming toxins is a common strategy to ensure effective de-energisation of closely- and distantly-related competitors.
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