Catalin M. Bunduc

New Results doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.05.506643 Abstract Mycobacteria utilize type VII secretion systems (T7SSs) to secrete proteins across their highly hydrophobic and diderm cell envelope. Pathogenic mycobacteria have up to five different T7SSs, called ESX-1 to ESX-5, which are crucial for growth and virulence.

Abstract Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the cause of one of the most important infectious diseases in humans, which leads to 1.4 million deaths every year1. Specialized protein transport systems—known as type VII secretion systems (T7SSs)—are central to the virulence of this pathogen, and are also crucial for nutrient and metabolite transport across the mycobacterial cell envelope2,3. Here we present the structure of an intact T7SS inner-membrane complex of M. tuberculosis.