Bartonella henselaesecretion studied, role of bipartite signal shown.

This article presents the findings of a research previously published in the medical journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America," conducted by researcher R. Schulein. Bacterial T4S systems mediate the transfer of macromolecular substrates into various target cells, e.g, the conjugative transfer of DNA into bacteria or the transfer of virulence proteins into eukaryotic host cells. The T4S apparatus VirB of the vascular tumor-inducing pathogen B. henselae causes subversion of human endothelial cell (HEC) function.