LPS remodeling triggers outer membrane vesicles in Salmonella

In a new paper published in mBio, Dr. Wael Elhenawy (now a postdoctoral fellow in the Coombes lab), Dr. Mario Feldman (Washington University, St. Louis) and colleagues describe a new mechanism of outer membrane vesicle (OMV) formation in Salmonella. In this model, OMV formation is triggered by LPS modifications induced by the lipid A deacylase PagL. Since the regulatory circuitry leading to PagL expression is activated following host infection, these data highlight a new connection between virulence gene expression and OMV formation that may play an important role in host-pathogen interactions. [Read the paper here].