Advances in functional proteins of type VI secretion system of Acinetobacter baumannii

Abstract:

The type VI secretion system (T6SS) as a dynamic multi-protein complex has a clear division of labor among its components, transporting effector proteins to compete for bacterial growth. Studies have shown that T6SS mediates the competitiveness of Acinetobacter baumannii in the microbial community and affects the drug resistance evolution and invasion in the host. Particularly, the valine-glycine repeat protein G (VgrG), the proline-alanine- alanine-arginine (PAAR), the hemolysin-coregulated protein (Hcp), and the effector-immunity (E-I) pair play a key role. Although T6SS has been extensively studied, there are few articles about its clinical application prospects, as this poses challenges to the identification, characterization, transport mechanism revealing, and other basic research on their functional proteins. We reviewed the research progress in the distribution, functional protein characteristics, and transport mechanism of T6SS in A. baumannii and provided evidence for its application based on the application cases of T6SS. This review aims to promote the research on the genes and functions of T6SS in A. baumannii and provide new targets and ideas for developing new anti-infective vaccines, screening suitable inhibitors, and producing engineered drug delivery tools.