Structural mimicry in bacterial virulence

An important mechanism underlying the strategies used by microbial pathogen s to manipulate cellular functions is that of functional mimicry of host ac tivities. In some cases, mimicry is achieved through virulence factors that are direct homologues of host proteins. In others, convergent evolution ha s produced new effectors that, although having no obvious amino-acid sequen ce similarity to host factors, are revealed by structural studies to displa y mimicry at the molecular level.