BACTERIAL OUTER MEMBRANE VESICLES

All Gram negative bacteria shed off portions of their outer membrane in the form of spherical membrane vesicles. These vesicles are composed of the outer membrane components (lipids, proteins, lipopolysaccharides) and periplasmic lumen. These vesicles have been noticed long ago, but, until recently were thought to be a random phenomena with no serious implications. HOWEVER, recent studies have shown that the release of these vesicle is a rather complex and well timed process, which contributes to the most important aspects of bacterial life style, for examples: cell-cell communication, formation of biofilms, delivery of virulence factors and toxins, genetic material release and uptake, stress tolerance and more. Despite the growing research on this topic in animal pathosystems, there is hardly anything known about the role of these vesicles in the interaction of plant pathogens and host plants.

So… do plant pathogens also release OMVs? are they released in the plant vicinity? and if they are, what is their function? do they promote pathogenesis and how?

There are lots of questions to ask and we are eager to try and answer them.