TABLE 1.

The main virulence factors involved in the invasion of endothelial cells and erythrocytes.

Virulence factor	Functions	Lineages	References
Trw type IV secretion system	Adhesion to erythrocyte surface	Bartonella australis; Lineage 4	Harms and Dehio, 2012
BadA/Vomps	Binding to extracellular matrix proteins	B. henselae/B. quintana (lineage 4)	Riess et al., 2004
Deformin	Damage in erythrocyte membranes	B. bacilliformis (lineage 1); B. henselae (lineage 4)	Mernaugh and Ihler, 1992; Iwaki-Egawa and Ihler, 1997
VirB/VirD4-T4SS, Bartonella effector proteins	Inhibition of apoptosis, proinflammatory activation, modulation of angiogenesis, invasome formation	B. ancashensis (lineage 1); Lineage 3–4	Wagner and Dehio, 2019
BafA	Angiogenesis	B. quintana, B. henselae and B. elizabethae (lineage 4)	Tsukamoto et al., 2020, 2022
CFA	Invasion of erythrocytes	Lineage 1–4	Siewert et al., 2022b
IalB protein	Promoting enter erythrocytes	B. bacilliformis (lineage 1); B. henselae (lineage 4)	Mitchell and Minnick, 1995; Coleman and Minnick, 2001