Fig. 6.

An expanded model for STY pathogenesis. Taken together, our data demonstrates STY bacteria employ a “Trojan Horse” strategy to invade enterocytes and dismantle the immune response from the intracellular environment. We propose that STY invades enterocytes after rearranging the enterocyte cytoskeleton. Invading bacteria are contained within vesicles that are modified to block vesicular trafficking. The secretion of effector proteins modulates eukaryotic cell signaling cascades and transcription. Cytokine stores are released toward the apical pole to prevent recruitment of immune cells to the site of infection. Finally, STY traverse to the basolateral pole and transition to the systemic phase of disease.