FIGURE 3.

Schematic of the V. parahaemolyticus intracellular lifecycle and the T3SS effectors that contribute to it (1). The T3SS2 effector VopC induces epithelial host cell plasma membrane ruffling that internalizes V. parahaemolyticus into a nascent vacuole. The nascent vacuole develops first into an early endosome-like compartment, given by its acquisition of EEA1 (2) and subsequently matures into a late endosome-like vacuole, given by the recruitment of Lamp-1 (3). (4) The bacterium disrupts its containing vacuole and escapes into the cytosol, where bacterial replication takes place (5). To evade host immune defenses, V. parahaemolyticus employs the T3SS2 VopL, which disrupts the actin cytoskeleton and thereby inhibits the actin-dependent assembly of the ROS-producing NADPH oxidase complex.