Intimate interactions of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli at the host cell surface

Unlike many gastrointestinal pathogens, enteropathogenic Escherichia coli o rchestrates the modulation of host cellular and immune responses from the e xterior of the infected cell, chiefly via the secreted and translocated com ponents of a type III secretion system. Close inspection of these enteropat hogenic Escherichia coli proteins and the interactions they mediate provide s an increasingly coherent picture of the pathogenic mechanisms that entero pathogenic Escherichia coli uses to exploit its host. Curr Opin Infect Dis 14:559-565. (C) 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.