In order to facilitate the hijacking of essential host processes many bacterial pathogens employ one or a combination of secretion systems (reviewed in Filloux et al., 2008).
Thus, given their broad phylogenetic scope, T4SSs encompass an extraordinary array of functional diversification and constitute a major player in infectious disease processes in many bacterial species.
Despite the wealth of in vitro data on the different bacterial biofilm developmental programs and the mechanisms by which many bacterial factors contribute to these processes, large gaps exist in the research on biofilms formed on host organs.
The second region encodes homologs of a putative iron-siderophore ABC transporter, which enables iron uptake from the medium, an important process for many bacterial infections [ 11].
For example, iron acquisition systems, such as the Feo, Sit, and Efe systems, transport free ferrous iron, Fe(II), into the bacterial cell in Gram-negative bacteria (13, 14) and are an essential process for many bacterial species (15 – 15).
Many bacterial TFs involved in key cellular processes are essential to the cell and are highly conserved.
This may be due in part to autolysis, a process common to many bacterial species which release cellular proteins into the extracellular milieu [ 35].
Phase variation is the process by which many bacterial species undergo reversible phenotypic changes resulting from genetic alterations in certain loci [ 32, 33].
On the other hand, following sufficient intracellular propagation of ML within Schwann cells, the next step of the infectious process, as in many bacterial infections, is to transfer their progeny to a secure host cell type, which could serve as either mediator cells or vehicle that can spread the infection locally or systemically.
