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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Oct 20.
Published in final edited form as: Cell Host Microbe. 2015 Jul 8;18(1):7–8. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2015.06.010

Figure 1. Burkholderia pseudomallei Senses GSH in the Mammalian Cytoplasm.

Figure 1

B. pseudomallei is an intracellular pathogen (visualized in green). It invades and replicates within host cells. Initially it replicates in a vacuole. Subsequently, B. pseudomallei escapes the vacuole into the cytoplasm where it senses the host glutathione (GSH) as a signal through a sensor kinase named VirA. Upon sensing GSH, VirA activates a signaling cascade in the bacterium leading to upregulation of the expression of the type six secretion system, which is key for infection and cell-to-cell spread of this pathogen.