Controlling the maturation of pathogen-containing vacuoles: a matter of life and death

Once considered to be contained, infectious diseases of bacterial origin ar e now making a comeback. A lack of innovative therapies and the appearance of drug-resistant pathogens are becoming increasingly serious problems. A b etter understanding of pathogen-host interactions at the cellular and molec ular levels is necessary to define new targets in our fight against microor ganisms. In the past few years, the merging of cell biology and microbiolog y has started to yield critical and often surprising new information on the interactions that occur between various pathogens and their mammalian host cells. Here we focus on the intracellular routing of vacuoles containing m icroorganisms, as well as on the bacterial effecters and their host-cell ta rgets that control vacuole maturation. We also describe new approaches for isolating microorganism-containing vacuoles and analysing their molecular c omposition, which will help researchers to define the molecules and mechani sms governing vacuole biogenesis.