Bacteria often express numerous virulence factors. These virulence factors make them successful pathogens, by e.g. mediating attachment to host cells and thereby facilitating persistence or invasion, or by contributing to the evasion of the host immune system to allow proliferation and spread within the host and in the environment. The site of first contact of Gram negative bacteria with the host is the bacterial outer membrane (OM). Consisting of an asymmetrical lipid bilayer with phospholipids forming the inner, and lipopolysaccharides forming the outer leaflet, the OM harbors numerous integral membrane proteins that are almost exclusively β-barrel proteins. One distinct family of OM β-barrel proteins strongly linked to bacterial virulence are the autotransporter (AT) proteins. During the last years huge progress has been made to better understand the mechanisms underlying the insertion of AT proteins into the OM and also AT function for interaction with the host. This review shortly summarizes our current knowledge about outer membrane protein (OMP) and more specifically AT biogenesis and function. We focused on the AT proteins that we haved studied in most detail: i.e. the Yersinia adhesin A (YadA) and invasin of Yersinia enterocolitica (Ye) as well as its homolog intimin (Int) expressed by enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. In addition, this review provides a short outlook about how we could possibly use this knowledge to fight infection.

细菌经常表达多种毒力因子。这些毒力因子使它们成为成功的病原体，例如通过介导附着于宿主细胞从而促进持久性或侵袭，或通过逃避宿主免疫系统以使其在宿主内和环境中扩散和扩散而成为成功的病原体。革兰氏阴性细菌与宿主的首次接触部位是细菌外膜（OM）。OM由不对称的脂质双层组成，磷脂形成内部，磷脂形成外部小叶，OM保留了许多完整的膜蛋白，而这些膜蛋白几乎完全是β-barrel蛋白。与细菌毒力密切相关的一种独特的OMβ-桶蛋白家族是自转运蛋白（AT）蛋白。在过去的几年中，在更好地理解将AT蛋白插入OM的机制以及AT与宿主相互作用的功能方面取得了巨大进展。这篇评论简短地总结了我们目前关于外膜蛋白（OMP）的知识，更具体地说是关于AT生物发生和功能的知识。我们专注于我们已经最详细研究的AT蛋白：即耶尔森菌黏附素A（YadA）和小肠结肠炎耶尔森菌（Yesinia enterocolitica（Ye））的入侵素，以及由肠致病性大肠杆菌表达的同系内膜素（Int）。此外，本篇综述简要介绍了我们如何利用这些知识来抗击感染。