BACKGROUND
type-iii secretion is one of five different types of protein secretion employed by gram-negative bacteria to move proteins from the cytoplasm across two membranes to the external milieu  <cit> .
any given type-iii secretion system  consists of a multi-protein complex that spans both the inner and outer membranes and the periplasm so that proteins are delivered to the exterior in an atpase-dependent fashion without a periplasmic intermediate.
type-iii secretion systems can be classified into two major groups: those associated with flagellar biosynthesis and those associated with interactions between bacteria and eukaryotic cells  <cit> .
type-iii secretion is thus central to our understanding of bacterial motility, virulence, symbiosis, and ecology.
type-iii secretion also provides an attractive drug and vaccine target  <cit>  and has been exploited in the biotechnology arena as a antigen delivery system  <cit>
the important human pathogens, enteropathogenic and enterohaemorrhagic escherichia coli  utilise type-iii secretion to subvert eukaryotic signalling pathways by injecting bacterial effector proteins into the host cell cytoplasm  <cit> .
within these pathovars, a well-characterised t3ss is responsible for the development of a characteristic attaching-effacing  lesion and for other effects on enterocyte function  <cit>  .
in common with most other t3sss, this system is encoded by a "pathogenicity island" , which contains virulence genes clustered on the chromosome and acquired en bloc by horizontal gene transfer  <cit> .
some strains of the rarely isolated putative pathogen of humans, escherichia albertii , and of the mouse pathogen citrobacter rodentium, which causes transmissible murine colonic hyperplasia, have been shown to induce ae lesion formation and to possess the lee  <cit> .
when applied to biological sequences, homology is defined as similarity that arises because of descent from a common ancestor  <cit> .
assignments of sequence homology have a predictive value, in that sequence homology implies structural homology, and, less certainly, functional similarity.
although homologous sequences can diverge in function, or be recruited to a different physiological role or cellular compartment, the discovery of homology allows functional assignments to be transferred from a protein or gene that has undergone experimental investigation to a protein or gene that has not been studied in the laboratory .
any such functional assignment should always be treated as a working hypothesis rather than as an established fact.
however, this approach can lead to new predictions about biological function that can then be tested in the laboratory, informing an existing programme of experimental work, or even opening up an entire line of enquiry where none existed before  <cit> .
at its most basic, an assertion of homology calls to our attention the "null hypothesis" – that proteins with homologous sequences should behave in similar ways – and, whenever this does not appear to be true, provokes the question, why are these proteins behaving differently?
searches for homology between sequences are reliable only when the search program provides statistics that allow one to estimate how likely it is that randomly composed sequences could yield alignment scores at least as high as that obtained between the two sequences in question .
when the complete sequence of the lee was first reported, an attempt was made to create a standard rational nomenclature based on experimental findings and functional predictions.
e. coli-secreted proteins were given the generic name esp   <cit> .
components of the secretion apparatus that had obvious homologues in the better-characterized plasmid-encoded ysc-yop t3ss of yersinia sp.
were given the prefix esc and the same suffix as their yersinia homologues .
proteins that apparently lacked yersinia homologues, but appeared to be involved in type iii secretion, retained the designation sep : originally sepz for rorf <dig> and sepq for orf <dig>  but with the designations sepd for rorf <dig> and sepl for orf <dig> subsequently seeing widespread use.
the chaperone for the secretion of espd was named cesd .
the intimin gene was named eae  and the intimin receptor named tir .
since these original designations were made, several other lee-encoded proteins have been characterized and re-named according to these conventions , while some others have acquired names outside the original nomenclature, based on functional properties   <cit>
the original assertions of homology for the lee-encoded proteins – and the functional assignments that flowed from them – were based on the results of unsophisticated searches using the gapped blast program  <cit> .
however, in the search for distant homologues, a considerable body of evidence now confirms that simple blast searches are far outperformed by more advanced, iterative methods such as psi-blast  <cit> .
in addition, the growth of domain databases such as pfam  <cit>  and the steady accumulation of new sequence data on type-iii secretion systems, especially from genome sequencing  <cit> , provide a new backdrop against which original claims of homology  can now be judged.
bearing these facts in mind – and prompted by a recent assertion that "nearly half of the lee genes have no homologues  <cit> " – we have therefore undertaken a fresh bioinformatics analysis of the proteins encoded by the lee, using highly sensitive methods for the detection of homology.
given the recent discoveries of numerous t3ss effectors secreted through the lee-encoded t3ss  <cit> , for reasons of space we have opted to restrict our analysis to lee-encoded components of the secretion and translocation apparatus and soluble cytoplasmic proteins associated therewith .
we will leave homology analyses of effectors  and functionally related proteins  for later publications.
we conclude that the vast majority of lee-encoded proteins do indeed possess homologues and that homology data can be used in combination with experimental data to make fresh functional predictions .
RESULTS
the conserved type-iii secretion apparatus
several lee-encoded proteins have already been assigned esc designations to reflect their similarities to the ysc proteins in the yersinia ysc-yop system  <cit> .
blastp-based comparisons of the predicted components of basal complex confirms significant near-full-length homology between escc, escd, escj, escn, escr, escs, esct, escu and escv and the respective ysc proteins and homologues , although, confusingly, yscv is more commonly known as lcrd, and escd is sometimes termed pas  <cit> .
in the cases of ecsn, escr, escs, esct, escu and escv, homology clearly extends to components of the flagellar apparatus  <cit> .
these unequivocal homologues suggest that observations on these proteins in other systems can safely be generalised to the lee-encoded system – as has been confirmed in several recent papers  <cit>  – and can be used to frame novel hypotheses about their function .
however, it is important to remain on guard for minor but, perhaps, important differences between systems: for example, the c-terminal ~100-residue domain from yscc, which is thought to house two dsba-dependent disulfide bridges is missing from escc and many other homologues  <cit> .
as noted previously, yscd contains a cytoplasmic fha domain  <cit> .
psi-blast searches confirm that escd also contains a cytoplasmic fha domain .
in addition, these searches revealed the presence of at least one putative phospholipid-binding domain  in the periplasmic portion of the protein .
two compelling hypotheses arise from these observations.
the first of these is that, given the established role of fha domains in signalling  <cit> , it is tempting to speculate that the cytoplasmic fha domain of escd might be involved in signal transduction .
secondly, as bon domains are thought to mediate binding to phospholipids in a variety of other proteins  <cit> , it is likely that they play a similar role in escd and its homologues.
the missing escl and escq proteins
although, as noted above, the majority of the "ysc proteins" that form conserved components of the secretion apparatus in yersinia have easily recognisable "esc protein" counterparts in the lee-encoded system, there are two salient exceptions – in the current annotation of the lee, there are no equivalents of yscq and yscl.
yscq is a member of the flin family of proteins and is thought to be a component of the basal secretion complex  <cit> .
although psi-blast searches fail to find any yscq homologue among the lee-encoded proteins, a search of the ncbi's cdd database  <cit>  identifies a flin domain  in the c-terminal half of sepq .
this suggests that sepq plays a similar role to yscq and flin – allowing new hypotheses to be framed  – and should be re-named escq.
although, the high degree of divergence of the escq c-terminal domain from other yscq/flin family members is puzzling, it is clear from scrutiny of the recently solved structure of the homologous domain from hrcqb  <cit>  that sepq possesses most of the conserved motifs common to this domain family, and must adopt a similar fold .
yscl is a member of the flih family of proteins.
in flagellar systems, flih binds to and regulates the activity of the atpase flii  <cit> , and yscl is also known to bind to yscn  <cit> .
psi-blast searches across the ncbi's non-redundant database with yscl fail to identify any homologue in the lee system, because of contamination with low-complexity eukaryotic proteins.
however, if a psi-blast search with orf <dig> is restricted to bacterial proteins, after one iteration, yscl appears in the results list .
after two iterations, several more flih homologues are found.
furthermore, consistent with the recent suggestion that the yscl-yscn interaction mirrors similar interactions in other atpases  <cit> , weak similarity is also reported between orf <dig> and several f <dig> atpase beta subunits .
a multiple alignment confirms the presence of conserved residues within flih, yscl and orf <dig> .
it thus seems likely that orf <dig> is a homologue of yscl and flih, plays a similar role  and should be re-named escl.
a lytic trans-glycosylase: a novel drug target?
both domain searches and psi-blast searches show that rorf <dig> encodes a lytic transglycosylase.
similar enzymes, which occur in type ii, type iii and type iv secretion systems, are responsible for enlarging gaps in the peptidoglycan meshwork to allow efficient assembly and anchoring of supramolecular transport complexes in the cell envelope  <cit> .
the presence of a dedicated transglycosylase within this type-iii secretion system provides an obvious target for the development of anti-microbial agents that specifically inhibit type-iii secretion, particularly as structural data is available for homologous enzymes  <cit> .
we propose that rorf <dig> be re-named etga for e. coli transglycosylase.
curiously, we have been unable to find a homologue of etga in the ysc-yop system.
the needle
despite its name, escf, a major component of the needle, does not show significant similarity to yscf on a simple blastp search , but the unimpressive significance score can be explained by the short length of the sequence ; the e value rises to a more respectable  <dig>  within two iterations of a psi-blast search.
furthermore, it is clear from published experimental work that yscf and escf play equivalent roles as needle components  <cit> .
in the spi- <dig> and mxi-spa systems, two small proteins are associated with the needle – prgi/prgj and mxih/mxii respectively  <cit> .
there is experimental evidence from both systems to suggest that only one of the proteins  is the major subunit component of the needle, while the function of the second protein  was, until recently, unclear – it was initially thought to form a cap for the needle  <cit> .
however, the function of prgj  has now been elucidated – it forms the inner rod within the base of the needle  <cit> .
a prgj-like component has yet to be described in the lee-encoded system.
however, psi-blast searches indicate that rorf <dig> is homologous to eprj, prgj, mxii and to an uncharacterised protein from the ysc-yop system, ysci .
this suggests that rorf <dig> and ysci play similar roles to prgj/mxii as components of the inner rod and that rorf <dig> should be re-named esci.
interestingly, psi-blast searches also suggest that the prgi-like and prgj-like proteins are paralogous.
homology between espa and flagellin
the lee-encoded t3ss is so far unique in possessing a filamentous organelle, the espa pilus, that resembles the flagellum, forms an extension to the needle complex and is thought to act as a molecular syringe providing a continuous protein-translocation channel between the bacterial and host cells  <cit> .
the pilus primarily consists of espa, but also requires espd for its biosynthesis  <cit> .
espb and espd form a pore in the host cell plasma membrane  <cit> .
psi-blast searches on the virulogenome site with espa reveal homology within two iterations to numerous flagellins, including the salmonella flagellin for which a structure is available  <cit>  .
although the precise alignment of the n-terminal region of espa with flagellin appears critically dependent on the psi-blast settings used, the alignment of the c-terminal region of espa with flagellin appears robust.
this allows certain hypotheses to be framed about the structure of espa and the espa filament.
firstly, surprisingly, the coiled-coil domain at the c-terminus of espa appears to correspond not to the coiled-coil at the extreme c-terminus of flagellin, which forms one half of the flagellin d <dig> domain, but instead to the c-terminal portion of the d <dig> domain   <cit> .
in other words, espa appears to lack a d <dig> domain.
in the flagellar filament, d <dig> forms the inner tube, while d <dig> forms the outer tube  <cit> .
although d <dig> interactions are important in filament stability, mutant flagellins that lack the d <dig> domain can still assemble into straight filaments, albeit with a structure, termed lt, distinct from the native flagellar filaments  <cit> .
it is thus entirely plausible that the espa pilus is assembled without the need for a d <dig> domain and resembles the lt filament structure.
one problem with this is that, unlike the native flagellar filament and the espa filament, the lt filament appears to lack a central pore.
however, this is probably an artefact  and by analogy with flagellin  <cit> , one could predict that the central pore in the espa filament is lined by conserved polar residues close to extreme c-terminus of espa .
secondly, espa appears to lack a d <dig> domain .
this fits in with the observation that d <dig> is highly variable in size and in sequence among flagellins and is not essential for flagellar filament formation in salmonella  <cit> .
however, it is interesting to note that two espa homologues from chromobacterium violaceum possess a central insertion, which is likely to fold into an extensive surface-exposed domain, perhaps analogous to the flagellar d <dig> domain  <cit> .
a third, crucial point concerns the role of the coiled-coil domains in espa.
the coiled-coil domains at the n- and c-termini of flagellin were initially thought to facilitate filament assembly by mediating inter-molecular interactions between neighbouring flagellin subunits  <cit> .
based on the hypothesis that coiled coils might play an analogous role in the assembly of the espa pilus  <cit> , mutagenesis experiments were performed and showed that the c-terminal coiled coil domain of espa is required for filament assembly  <cit> .
however, the interpretation of these experiments must now be revised in the light of the flagellar structure and homology data.
when the flagellar filament structure was solved, it became clear that, contrary to expectation, the coiled-coil domains mediated interactions within subunits, rather than between them  <cit> .
thus, by extension, it is likely that, for both espa and flagellin, the coiled-coil interaction is a necessary but not sufficient requirement for filament assembly.
coiled-coil prediction programs and psi-blast searches suggest that, in addition to lacking the d <dig> and d <dig> domains, espa lacks any homologue of the n-terminal helix  of the coiled-coil that forms the d <dig> domain.
however, recent structural information on espa complexed with its chaperone cesa indicates that espa contains a short n-terminal coiled-coil domain in addition to the already recognized much longer c-terminal coiled-coil domain  <cit> .
it is thus possible that espa folds up as a "mini-flagellin", so that together these two coiled-coil domains mediate an intra-subunit interaction similar to that seen in the flagellar monomer.
however, this does not fit well with the apparent discrepancy in length between the two domains.
an alternative possibility is that espa acts as "half-a-flagellin", so that it dimerizes through an inter-subunit coiled-coil interaction, and then the dimer polymerizes, like flagellin, through hydrophobic interactions but between dimers rather than monomers.
the "mini-flagellin" and "half-flagellin" models could be distinguished in the laboratory.
for example if the half-flagellin model holds true, it should be possible through mutagenesis to identify mutations that disrupt polymerisation but leave the coiled-coil-mediated dimerization potential intact .
furthermore, it should be possible to distinguish dimerization from subsequent polymerisation by physicochemical methods.
finally, under this model, there is a potential for the formation of heterodimers – an idea supported by the existence of four c. violaceum espa homologues, encoded by two pairs of adjacent genes.
in each pair, the first gene encodes a short conventional espa homologue, while the second gene encodes a long espa homologue containing a central d3-like insertion  <cit> .
according to the half-flagellin model, the short and the long espa-like proteins would have the potential to form heterodimers, which would then polymerise into a filament.
this prediction could be tested experimentally, e.g.
by showing that these espa homologues form long/short dimers but do not engage in self-self interactions.
the toll-like receptor  <dig>  recognizes the d <dig> domain of flagellin  <cit> .
although espa lacks several of the residues identified as critical in binding , the overall conservation of the cd <dig> domain raises the question of whether tlr <dig> might recognize espa.
however, recent experimental investigations suggest it does not .
yet, this in turn raises the question of whether this lack of interaction is the result of genetic drift or of positive selective pressure on espa to avoid recognition by tlr <dig>
psi-blast searches with espb prove unhelpful, as the compositional bias of the protein, particularly in its coiled-coil domains, attracts numerous simple-sequence proteins, even when a filter and composition-based statistics are used  <cit> .
however, a comparison of domain architecture and genetic location with translocation-pore proteins/genes from other systems  suggests functional and structural similarities.
psi-blast searches with espd prove more fruitful, especially when composition-based statistics are employed – they reveal significant similarities to several other t3ss translocon-pore proteins.
for example, when espd is used as a query sequence for a psi-blast search on the ncbi nr database under default settings, yopb is found in the first round with an e value  within the psi-blast threshold, while ssec achieves significance  on the second psi-blast round.
homologies and gene fusions in the sepl/yopn-tyea family
sepl is a lee-encoded protein that has been said to have no homologues and is required for ae lesion formation and secretion of translocation proteins and for the translocation of – but not the secretion of – effectors  <cit> .
psi-blast searches reveal homology to two proteins from the ysc-yop system: most of the sepl sequence  is homologous to yopn , while the c-terminal  <dig> amino acids are homologous to tyea .
this assertion of homology between sepl and yopn/tyea is supported by several other lines of evidence  the yopn and tyea genes are adjacent to one another;  the yopn and tyea proteins interact with one another;  it is well established that genes encoding interacting domains often occur adjacent to one another and can undergo gene fusion in some genomes,  experimental evidence has recently emerged showing that a chimaeric yopn/tyea protein can be produced by programmed frame shifting in some yersinia strains  <cit> .
this new-found homology also fuels two predictions:  the c-terminal residues 268– <dig> of sepl, corresponding to tyea, interact with the residues immediately upstream  in the region of sepl corresponding to yopn residues 242–280;  the interaction between yopn and tyea must occur in a 1: <dig> ratio – this could be confirmed by creating a yopn-tyea fusion that lacks a start codon for tyea, and then showing that this construct could complement a yopn/tyea mutant to give normal type-iii secretion.
further insights into type-iii secretion arise when additional psi-blast searches are applied to the homologues retrieved when sepl is used as the query sequence.
firstly, it is clear that the ysc-yop system is unusual in separating out the two sepl-related sequences into two proteins.
this arrangement occurs only in systems closely related to the ysc-yop system ; in other systems, there is a single protein corresponding to a yopn-tyea chimaera .
secondly, through careful use of psi-blast, it is possible, through repeated searching, to establish unequivocal homology between sepl-like proteins from each of the well-characterised animal-pathogen-related t3sss – not just between sepl and yopn-tyea, but also encompassing inve from the spi- <dig> system and mxic from the shigella system .
this implies that functional assignments for any one of these proteins should be generalisable to all the others – a prediction borne out by the similar phenotypes ascribed to these proteins, which all appear to play a role in regulating the translocation of effectors  <cit> .
indeed, it is even possible that some reported differences in phenotype  might represent idiosyncrasies of experimental approach than genuine biological differences.
however, even if these do represent true differences, this begs the question: how and why have homologous proteins come to acquire such divergent functions?
sepl interacts with another protein of unknown function sepd  <cit> .
unfortunately, homology searches afforded no insights into the function of sepd.
however, given that sepd is located next to escc in the lee, while yscb occupies an analogous position  in the ysc cluster, it is tempting to speculate that they might play similar roles.
also, no homologues could be found in the lee-encoded system of lcrv and lcrg, which are thought to regulate entry into the ysc secretion apparatus from the cytoplasm  <cit> .
similarly, we could not detect any lee-encoded homologues of the needle-length molecular ruler yscp  <cit> , even though, as we have reported elsewhere  <cit> , psi-blast searches do reveal sequence similarity at the c-terminus between yscp and the flagellar hook-length-determining protein flik, implying that they employ similar mechanisms  <cit> .
nor could we find any homologue of invj/spa <dig>  which, although showing no detectable sequence similarity to yscp or flik, is thought to play a similar role to these proteins in needle-length determination in the spi- <dig> and mxi-spa systems  <cit> .
despite the frustrating lack of sequence similarities, two pieces of tantalising circumstantial evidence link flik/yscp with invj/spa <dig>  and hint at the identity of an equivalent protein in the lee-encoded system.
firstly, all four proteins are characterised by the presence of large amounts of random coil on secondary structure predictions .
secondly, the genes for these proteins always occupy an equivalent position within the type-iii secretion gene cluster: always next door but one to and downstream of the gene encoding the atpase.
when these criteria are applied to the lee, an obvious candidate for needle-length determination emerges: orf <dig> .
almost nothing is known about this gene/protein, which has no known homologues outside of the lee.
however, a mutant in this gene in citrobacter is deficient in translocator secretion, but is still able to secrete effectors normally, and is severely attenuated in the mouse  <cit> .
these results are consistent with the hypothesis that orf <dig> controls the switch between export of needle components and components of translocation apparatus.
however, in the absence of structural or experimental data, it is premature to make an assertion of homology between orf <dig> and yscp/flik, particularly as tentative assignments tend to harden into dogma and then preclude consideration of other possibilities i.e.
that different systems employ different mechanisms for the same purpose.
clearly, additional experimental data are needed to resolve this issue.
chaperones
five lee-encoded proteins have been designated chaperones on the basis of experimental work: cest, cesf, cesd, cesd <dig> and cesab  <cit> ,  <cit> .
for one of these, cest, which chaperones the effectors tir and map, the structure is available  <cit> .
psi-blast searches with the cest sequence link it to cesf and to two other virulence-related t3ss chaperones for which structural information is available  and also identify numerous other uncharacterised t3ss-associated proteins as chaperones .
interestingly, the results show homology between cest/cesf and exsc from p. aeruginosa.
as this protein has recently been reported to act as an anti-anti-activator, controlling transcription of t3ss genes in p. aeruginosa  <cit> , it is plausible that cest and/or cesf might play similar roles in gene regulation.
cesd is a member of the "chaperones of the translocators" family common to many t3sss.
we have already shown that this family is characterised by the presence of three tandem tetratricopeptide repeats  <cit> .
cesab  is a newly described chaperone that binds to espa and espb  <cit> .
homology searches fail to reveal any homologues of this protein, even in the two other systems that possess obvious espa homologues.
cesd <dig> , is a recently described chaperone that, like cesd, binds to espd  <cit> .
psi-blast searches show that it is homologous to ssee from the spi- <dig> system, csee from the cpi- <dig> system of chromobacterium violaceum, lcrr from the ysc-yop system, acrr from aeromonas salmonicida and lssr from photorhabdus luminescens.
none of these homologues has been characterised aside from lcrr.
an initial report suggested that a mutation in lcrr had a regulatory effect  <cit> , although this was subsequently shown to be the result of a polar effect on the downstream gene lcrg  <cit> .
however, an lcrr mutant was detected in a signature-tagged mutagenesis screen of y. pseudotuberculosis and shown to be attenuated both after oral and intra-peritoneal infection in balb-c mice, even though the mutation did not have a measurable effect on yop secretion or function in cell culture assays  <cit> .
these findings stand in contrast to a report that a y. pseudotuberculosis lcrr mutant had no virulence phenotype after oral infection of swiss albino mice  <cit> .
the homology between lcrr and cesd <dig> and between espd and yopb suggests that lcrr is likely to bind to yopb .
regulators
ler is a regulatory protein encoded with the lee <dig> operon, which has been extensively studied for its effects on gene expression within the lee-encoded system  <cit> .
it is known to be homologous to the global regulator h-ns, and is likely to adopt a similar fold, including a dimeric structure, particularly as key residues in the n-terminal dimerization domain are conserved in both proteins  <cit> .
h-ns is known to form heterodimers with other proteins from the h-ns family  <cit>  and to form complexes with members of the hha family of regulators  <cit> .
as the attaching and effacing pathogens possess two other h-ns-like proteins besides ler , and possess hha-like proteins , it is tempting to ask whether ler could, under any circumstances, form complexes with h-ns or stpa or with the hha-like proteins .
quorum sensing through the ai- <dig> pathway is known to influence type-iii secretion in the lee-encoded system  <cit> .
in addition, there is some limited evidence to support an impact on type-iii secretion of quorum-sensing through the ai-1/acyl-homoserine lactone route  <cit> .
however, this latter route is less plausible, as e. coli cannot produce these signalling molecules, although it can probably sense signals produced by other bacteria through the luxr-like protein sdia  <cit> .
it is thus surprising that domain searches with the protein sequence from rorf <dig> of the lee identify a pfam domain  entitled "sdia-regulated", which represents a conserved region approximately  <dig> residues long common to yjik from e. coli k- <dig> and several other bacterial outer-membrane proteins, including some salmonella proteins that are regulated by sdia  <cit>  .
this hints at a link between sdia-mediated sensing of other bacteria and lee-mediated type-iii secretion, which, twinned with growing evidence from salmonella and vibrio for an influence of sdia/luxr on virulence and type-iii secretion  <cit> , suggests that it might be worth taking a fresh look at the influence of sdia on lee-mediated type-iii secretion.
exhaustive psi-blast searches suggest that the "sdia-regulated domain" in fact consists of several nhl-like repeats , which are likely to fold up into a six-bladed beta-propeller  <cit>  .
grlr and glra  are a pair of recently characterised regulatory proteins encoded by adjacent genes within the lee  <cit> .
similarity has already been reported between glra and caif, a transcriptional regulator from e. coli and to a salmonella protein  <cit> .
psi-blast searches confirm this and report similarity to several other putative transcriptional regulators .
psi-blast searches with glrr identify only one homologue outside the lee – a protein encoded within the unfinished salmonella bongori genome .
interestingly, the s. bongori glrr homologue is located next to a grla homologue, suggesting a functional link between the two proteins and adding weight to the finding from yeast two-hybrid studies that glra and glrr interact with each other  <cit> .
the remaining coding sequences
six coding sequences, which initially appeared to be orphans, have recently been shown to essential for lee-encoded type-iii secretion: orf <dig>  orf <dig>  orf <dig>  orf <dig>  orf <dig> and orf <dig>  <cit> .
thus, something can now be said about all of them based on homology and/or experimental data.
psi-blast searches show that orf <dig> has homologues in several other systems: ssae in spi- <dig>  cv <dig> in cpi- <dig> and ysce in the ysc-yop system .
orf <dig> should thus be renamed esce.
the ssae gene was found to be induced after invasion of a murine cultured cell line  <cit> .
like ysce in yersinia  <cit> , orf2/esce is necessary for type-iii secretion through the lee-encoded t3ss  <cit> .
ysce interacts with tyea  <cit>  – thus it would seem likely that orf2/esce interacts with the c-terminal portion of sepl .
ysce also interacts with yscg, a protein with no detectable homologue in the lee-encoded system  <cit> .
orf <dig>  orf <dig> and orf <dig> possess homologues in t3sss closely related to the lee-encoded system, although not in the ysc-yop system .
none of the orf <dig> or orf <dig> homologues has been investigated.
however, the homologue of orf <dig> in the spi- <dig> system, ssam, has recently been characterised in s. enterica  <cit> .
an ssam deletion mutant was attenuated in vivo – in vitro it over-secreted, but failed to translocate, the effector ssej.
furthermore, it also failed to secrete translocators.
in addition, ssam was shown to interact with another effector spic within the bacterial cell.
the story told by this complex set of phenotypes, reminiscent of the multi-faceted yopn-like proteins or of the flik/yscp-like proteins, stands at odds with the simpler global defect in type-iii secretion reported in an orf <dig> deletion mutant  <cit> .
as with the yopn-like and flik/yscp-like proteins, it remains to be seen whether these apparently dissimilar functional properties of homologous proteins from different t3sss will converge into a unified mechanistic picture or represent genuine evolutionary divergence of function.
given that orf <dig> is known to interact with orf2/esce  <cit> , it is tempting to speculate that, even in absence of homology, orf <dig> and the chief binding partner of ysce, yscg might play similar roles.
as noted above, orf <dig> is a candidate for needle-length control, while the function and evolutionary origin of orf <dig> remain mysterious.
CONCLUSIONS
in this survey, we have discovered several new homologous relationships and woven together threads of evidence from our own in silico surveys and from published experimental studies to craft numerous novel functional predictions about the lee-encoded and other t3sss that can now be tested in the laboratory.
we invite the scientific community to test our predictions.
furthermore, in this sequence-rich, post-genomic era  <cit> , we believe the time is right to roll out similar bioinformatics analyses over all known type-iii secretion systems and invite others to join us in this enterprise on our new web site, 3base, dedicated to type-iii secretion .

 type-iii secretion is one of five different types of protein secretion employed by gram-negative bacteria to move proteins from the cytoplasm across two membranes to the external milieu. any given type-iii secretion system consists of a multi-protein complex that spans both the inner and outer membranes and the periplasm so that proteins are delivered to the exterior in an atpase-dependent fashion without a periplasmic intermediate. type-iii secretion systems can be classified into two major groups: those associated with flagellar biosynthesis and those associated with interactions between bacteria and eukaryotic cells. type-iii secretion is thus central to our understanding of bacterial motility, virulence, symbiosis, and ecology. type-iii secretion also provides an attractive drug and vaccine target and has been exploited in the biotechnology arena as a antigen delivery system the important human pathogens, enteropathogenic and enterohaemorrhagic escherichia coli utilise type-iii secretion to subvert eukaryotic signalling pathways by injecting bacterial effector proteins into the host cell cytoplasm. within these pathovars, a well-characterised t3ss is responsible for the development of a characteristic attaching-effacing lesion and for other effects on enterocyte function. in common with most other t3sss, this system is encoded by a "pathogenicity island", which contains virulence genes clustered on the chromosome and acquired en bloc by horizontal gene transfer. some strains of the rarely isolated putative pathogen of humans, escherichia albertii, and of the mouse pathogen citrobacter rodentium, which causes transmissible murine colonic hyperplasia, have been shown to induce ae lesion formation and to possess the lee. when applied to biological sequences, homology is defined as similarity that arises because of descent from a common ancestor. assignments of sequence homology have a predictive value, in that sequence homology implies structural homology, and, less certainly, functional similarity. although homologous sequences can diverge in function, or be recruited to a different physiological role or cellular compartment, the discovery of homology allows functional assignments to be transferred from a protein or gene that has undergone experimental investigation to a protein or gene that has not been studied in the laboratory. any such functional assignment should always be treated as a working hypothesis rather than as an established fact. however, this approach can lead to new predictions about biological function that can then be tested in the laboratory, informing an existing programme of experimental work, or even opening up an entire line of enquiry where none existed before. at its most basic, an assertion of homology calls to our attention the "null hypothesis" – that proteins with homologous sequences should behave in similar ways – and, whenever this does not appear to be true, provokes the question, why are these proteins behaving differently? searches for homology between sequences are reliable only when the search program provides statistics that allow one to estimate how likely it is that randomly composed sequences could yield alignment scores at least as high as that obtained between the two sequences in question. when the complete sequence of the lee was first reported, an attempt was made to create a standard rational nomenclature based on experimental findings and functional predictions. e. coli-secreted proteins were given the generic name esp. components of the secretion apparatus that had obvious homologues in the better-characterized plasmid-encoded ysc-yop t3ss of yersinia sp. were given the prefix esc and the same suffix as their yersinia homologues. proteins that apparently lacked yersinia homologues, but appeared to be involved in type iii secretion, retained the designation sep: originally sepz for rorf and sepq for orf but with the designations sepd for rorf and sepl for orf subsequently seeing widespread use. the chaperone for the secretion of espd was named cesd. the intimin gene was named eae and the intimin receptor named tir. since these original designations were made, several other lee-encoded proteins have been characterized and re-named according to these conventions, while some others have acquired names outside the original nomenclature, based on functional properties the original assertions of homology for the lee-encoded proteins – and the functional assignments that flowed from them – were based on the results of unsophisticated searches using the gapped blast program. however, in the search for distant homologues, a considerable body of evidence now confirms that simple blast searches are far outperformed by more advanced, iterative methods such as psi-blast. in addition, the growth of domain databases such as pfam and the steady accumulation of new sequence data on type-iii secretion systems, especially from genome sequencing, provide a new backdrop against which original claims of homology can now be judged. bearing these facts in mind – and prompted by a recent assertion that "nearly half of the lee genes have no homologues " – we have therefore undertaken a fresh bioinformatics analysis of the proteins encoded by the lee, using highly sensitive methods for the detection of homology. given the recent discoveries of numerous t3ss effectors secreted through the lee-encoded t3ss, for reasons of space we have opted to restrict our analysis to lee-encoded components of the secretion and translocation apparatus and soluble cytoplasmic proteins associated therewith. we will leave homology analyses of effectors and functionally related proteins for later publications. we conclude that the vast majority of lee-encoded proteins do indeed possess homologues and that homology data can be used in combination with experimental data to make fresh functional predictions.  the conserved type-iii secretion apparatus several lee-encoded proteins have already been assigned esc designations to reflect their similarities to the ysc proteins in the yersinia ysc-yop system. blastp-based comparisons of the predicted components of basal complex confirms significant near-full-length homology between escc, escd, escj, escn, escr, escs, esct, escu and escv and the respective ysc proteins and homologues, although, confusingly, yscv is more commonly known as lcrd, and escd is sometimes termed pas. in the cases of ecsn, escr, escs, esct, escu and escv, homology clearly extends to components of the flagellar apparatus. these unequivocal homologues suggest that observations on these proteins in other systems can safely be generalised to the lee-encoded system – as has been confirmed in several recent papers – and can be used to frame novel hypotheses about their function. however, it is important to remain on guard for minor but, perhaps, important differences between systems: for example, the c-terminal ~100-residue domain from yscc, which is thought to house two dsba-dependent disulfide bridges is missing from escc and many other homologues. as noted previously, yscd contains a cytoplasmic fha domain. psi-blast searches confirm that escd also contains a cytoplasmic fha domain. in addition, these searches revealed the presence of at least one putative phospholipid-binding domain in the periplasmic portion of the protein. two compelling hypotheses arise from these observations. the first of these is that, given the established role of fha domains in signalling, it is tempting to speculate that the cytoplasmic fha domain of escd might be involved in signal transduction. secondly, as bon domains are thought to mediate binding to phospholipids in a variety of other proteins, it is likely that they play a similar role in escd and its homologues. the missing escl and escq proteins although, as noted above, the majority of the "ysc proteins" that form conserved components of the secretion apparatus in yersinia have easily recognisable "esc protein" counterparts in the lee-encoded system, there are two salient exceptions – in the current annotation of the lee, there are no equivalents of yscq and yscl. yscq is a member of the flin family of proteins and is thought to be a component of the basal secretion complex. although psi-blast searches fail to find any yscq homologue among the lee-encoded proteins, a search of the ncbi's cdd database identifies a flin domain in the c-terminal half of sepq. this suggests that sepq plays a similar role to yscq and flin – allowing new hypotheses to be framed – and should be re-named escq. although, the high degree of divergence of the escq c-terminal domain from other yscq/flin family members is puzzling, it is clear from scrutiny of the recently solved structure of the homologous domain from hrcqb that sepq possesses most of the conserved motifs common to this domain family, and must adopt a similar fold. yscl is a member of the flih family of proteins. in flagellar systems, flih binds to and regulates the activity of the atpase flii, and yscl is also known to bind to yscn. psi-blast searches across the ncbi's non-redundant database with yscl fail to identify any homologue in the lee system, because of contamination with low-complexity eukaryotic proteins. however, if a psi-blast search with orf is restricted to bacterial proteins, after one iteration, yscl appears in the results list. after two iterations, several more flih homologues are found. furthermore, consistent with the recent suggestion that the yscl-yscn interaction mirrors similar interactions in other atpases, weak similarity is also reported between orf and several f atpase beta subunits. a multiple alignment confirms the presence of conserved residues within flih, yscl and orf. it thus seems likely that orf is a homologue of yscl and flih, plays a similar role and should be re-named escl. a lytic trans-glycosylase: a novel drug target? both domain searches and psi-blast searches show that rorf encodes a lytic transglycosylase. similar enzymes, which occur in type ii, type iii and type iv secretion systems, are responsible for enlarging gaps in the peptidoglycan meshwork to allow efficient assembly and anchoring of supramolecular transport complexes in the cell envelope. the presence of a dedicated transglycosylase within this type-iii secretion system provides an obvious target for the development of anti-microbial agents that specifically inhibit type-iii secretion, particularly as structural data is available for homologous enzymes. we propose that rorf be re-named etga for e. coli transglycosylase. curiously, we have been unable to find a homologue of etga in the ysc-yop system. the needle despite its name, escf, a major component of the needle, does not show significant similarity to yscf on a simple blastp search, but the unimpressive significance score can be explained by the short length of the sequence; the e value rises to a more respectable within two iterations of a psi-blast search. furthermore, it is clear from published experimental work that yscf and escf play equivalent roles as needle components. in the spi- and mxi-spa systems, two small proteins are associated with the needle – prgi/prgj and mxih/mxii respectively. there is experimental evidence from both systems to suggest that only one of the proteins is the major subunit component of the needle, while the function of the second protein was, until recently, unclear – it was initially thought to form a cap for the needle. however, the function of prgj has now been elucidated – it forms the inner rod within the base of the needle. a prgj-like component has yet to be described in the lee-encoded system. however, psi-blast searches indicate that rorf is homologous to eprj, prgj, mxii and to an uncharacterised protein from the ysc-yop system, ysci. this suggests that rorf and ysci play similar roles to prgj/mxii as components of the inner rod and that rorf should be re-named esci. interestingly, psi-blast searches also suggest that the prgi-like and prgj-like proteins are paralogous. homology between espa and flagellin the lee-encoded t3ss is so far unique in possessing a filamentous organelle, the espa pilus, that resembles the flagellum, forms an extension to the needle complex and is thought to act as a molecular syringe providing a continuous protein-translocation channel between the bacterial and host cells. the pilus primarily consists of espa, but also requires espd for its biosynthesis. espb and espd form a pore in the host cell plasma membrane. psi-blast searches on the virulogenome site with espa reveal homology within two iterations to numerous flagellins, including the salmonella flagellin for which a structure is available. although the precise alignment of the n-terminal region of espa with flagellin appears critically dependent on the psi-blast settings used, the alignment of the c-terminal region of espa with flagellin appears robust. this allows certain hypotheses to be framed about the structure of espa and the espa filament. firstly, surprisingly, the coiled-coil domain at the c-terminus of espa appears to correspond not to the coiled-coil at the extreme c-terminus of flagellin, which forms one half of the flagellin d domain, but instead to the c-terminal portion of the d domain. in other words, espa appears to lack a d domain. in the flagellar filament, d forms the inner tube, while d forms the outer tube. although d interactions are important in filament stability, mutant flagellins that lack the d domain can still assemble into straight filaments, albeit with a structure, termed lt, distinct from the native flagellar filaments. it is thus entirely plausible that the espa pilus is assembled without the need for a d domain and resembles the lt filament structure. one problem with this is that, unlike the native flagellar filament and the espa filament, the lt filament appears to lack a central pore. however, this is probably an artefact and by analogy with flagellin, one could predict that the central pore in the espa filament is lined by conserved polar residues close to extreme c-terminus of espa. secondly, espa appears to lack a d domain. this fits in with the observation that d is highly variable in size and in sequence among flagellins and is not essential for flagellar filament formation in salmonella. however, it is interesting to note that two espa homologues from chromobacterium violaceum possess a central insertion, which is likely to fold into an extensive surface-exposed domain, perhaps analogous to the flagellar d domain. a third, crucial point concerns the role of the coiled-coil domains in espa. the coiled-coil domains at the n- and c-termini of flagellin were initially thought to facilitate filament assembly by mediating inter-molecular interactions between neighbouring flagellin subunits. based on the hypothesis that coiled coils might play an analogous role in the assembly of the espa pilus, mutagenesis experiments were performed and showed that the c-terminal coiled coil domain of espa is required for filament assembly. however, the interpretation of these experiments must now be revised in the light of the flagellar structure and homology data. when the flagellar filament structure was solved, it became clear that, contrary to expectation, the coiled-coil domains mediated interactions within subunits, rather than between them. thus, by extension, it is likely that, for both espa and flagellin, the coiled-coil interaction is a necessary but not sufficient requirement for filament assembly. coiled-coil prediction programs and psi-blast searches suggest that, in addition to lacking the d and d domains, espa lacks any homologue of the n-terminal helix of the coiled-coil that forms the d domain. however, recent structural information on espa complexed with its chaperone cesa indicates that espa contains a short n-terminal coiled-coil domain in addition to the already recognized much longer c-terminal coiled-coil domain. it is thus possible that espa folds up as a "mini-flagellin", so that together these two coiled-coil domains mediate an intra-subunit interaction similar to that seen in the flagellar monomer. however, this does not fit well with the apparent discrepancy in length between the two domains. an alternative possibility is that espa acts as "half-a-flagellin", so that it dimerizes through an inter-subunit coiled-coil interaction, and then the dimer polymerizes, like flagellin, through hydrophobic interactions but between dimers rather than monomers. the "mini-flagellin" and "half-flagellin" models could be distinguished in the laboratory. for example if the half-flagellin model holds true, it should be possible through mutagenesis to identify mutations that disrupt polymerisation but leave the coiled-coil-mediated dimerization potential intact. furthermore, it should be possible to distinguish dimerization from subsequent polymerisation by physicochemical methods. finally, under this model, there is a potential for the formation of heterodimers – an idea supported by the existence of four c. violaceum espa homologues, encoded by two pairs of adjacent genes. in each pair, the first gene encodes a short conventional espa homologue, while the second gene encodes a long espa homologue containing a central d3-like insertion. according to the half-flagellin model, the short and the long espa-like proteins would have the potential to form heterodimers, which would then polymerise into a filament. this prediction could be tested experimentally, e.g. by showing that these espa homologues form long/short dimers but do not engage in self-self interactions. the toll-like receptor recognizes the d domain of flagellin. although espa lacks several of the residues identified as critical in binding, the overall conservation of the cd domain raises the question of whether tlr might recognize espa. however, recent experimental investigations suggest it does not. yet, this in turn raises the question of whether this lack of interaction is the result of genetic drift or of positive selective pressure on espa to avoid recognition by tlr psi-blast searches with espb prove unhelpful, as the compositional bias of the protein, particularly in its coiled-coil domains, attracts numerous simple-sequence proteins, even when a filter and composition-based statistics are used. however, a comparison of domain architecture and genetic location with translocation-pore proteins/genes from other systems suggests functional and structural similarities. psi-blast searches with espd prove more fruitful, especially when composition-based statistics are employed – they reveal significant similarities to several other t3ss translocon-pore proteins. for example, when espd is used as a query sequence for a psi-blast search on the ncbi nr database under default settings, yopb is found in the first round with an e value within the psi-blast threshold, while ssec achieves significance on the second psi-blast round. homologies and gene fusions in the sepl/yopn-tyea family sepl is a lee-encoded protein that has been said to have no homologues and is required for ae lesion formation and secretion of translocation proteins and for the translocation of – but not the secretion of – effectors. psi-blast searches reveal homology to two proteins from the ysc-yop system: most of the sepl sequence is homologous to yopn, while the c-terminal amino acids are homologous to tyea. this assertion of homology between sepl and yopn/tyea is supported by several other lines of evidence the yopn and tyea genes are adjacent to one another; the yopn and tyea proteins interact with one another; it is well established that genes encoding interacting domains often occur adjacent to one another and can undergo gene fusion in some genomes, experimental evidence has recently emerged showing that a chimaeric yopn/tyea protein can be produced by programmed frame shifting in some yersinia strains. this new-found homology also fuels two predictions: the c-terminal residues 268– of sepl, corresponding to tyea, interact with the residues immediately upstream in the region of sepl corresponding to yopn residues 242–280; the interaction between yopn and tyea must occur in a 1: ratio – this could be confirmed by creating a yopn-tyea fusion that lacks a start codon for tyea, and then showing that this construct could complement a yopn/tyea mutant to give normal type-iii secretion. further insights into type-iii secretion arise when additional psi-blast searches are applied to the homologues retrieved when sepl is used as the query sequence. firstly, it is clear that the ysc-yop system is unusual in separating out the two sepl-related sequences into two proteins. this arrangement occurs only in systems closely related to the ysc-yop system; in other systems, there is a single protein corresponding to a yopn-tyea chimaera. secondly, through careful use of psi-blast, it is possible, through repeated searching, to establish unequivocal homology between sepl-like proteins from each of the well-characterised animal-pathogen-related t3sss – not just between sepl and yopn-tyea, but also encompassing inve from the spi- system and mxic from the shigella system. this implies that functional assignments for any one of these proteins should be generalisable to all the others – a prediction borne out by the similar phenotypes ascribed to these proteins, which all appear to play a role in regulating the translocation of effectors. indeed, it is even possible that some reported differences in phenotype might represent idiosyncrasies of experimental approach than genuine biological differences. however, even if these do represent true differences, this begs the question: how and why have homologous proteins come to acquire such divergent functions? sepl interacts with another protein of unknown function sepd. unfortunately, homology searches afforded no insights into the function of sepd. however, given that sepd is located next to escc in the lee, while yscb occupies an analogous position in the ysc cluster, it is tempting to speculate that they might play similar roles. also, no homologues could be found in the lee-encoded system of lcrv and lcrg, which are thought to regulate entry into the ysc secretion apparatus from the cytoplasm. similarly, we could not detect any lee-encoded homologues of the needle-length molecular ruler yscp, even though, as we have reported elsewhere, psi-blast searches do reveal sequence similarity at the c-terminus between yscp and the flagellar hook-length-determining protein flik, implying that they employ similar mechanisms. nor could we find any homologue of invj/spa which, although showing no detectable sequence similarity to yscp or flik, is thought to play a similar role to these proteins in needle-length determination in the spi- and mxi-spa systems. despite the frustrating lack of sequence similarities, two pieces of tantalising circumstantial evidence link flik/yscp with invj/spa and hint at the identity of an equivalent protein in the lee-encoded system. firstly, all four proteins are characterised by the presence of large amounts of random coil on secondary structure predictions. secondly, the genes for these proteins always occupy an equivalent position within the type-iii secretion gene cluster: always next door but one to and downstream of the gene encoding the atpase. when these criteria are applied to the lee, an obvious candidate for needle-length determination emerges: orf. almost nothing is known about this gene/protein, which has no known homologues outside of the lee. however, a mutant in this gene in citrobacter is deficient in translocator secretion, but is still able to secrete effectors normally, and is severely attenuated in the mouse. these results are consistent with the hypothesis that orf controls the switch between export of needle components and components of translocation apparatus. however, in the absence of structural or experimental data, it is premature to make an assertion of homology between orf and yscp/flik, particularly as tentative assignments tend to harden into dogma and then preclude consideration of other possibilities i.e. that different systems employ different mechanisms for the same purpose. clearly, additional experimental data are needed to resolve this issue. chaperones five lee-encoded proteins have been designated chaperones on the basis of experimental work: cest, cesf, cesd, cesd and cesab,. for one of these, cest, which chaperones the effectors tir and map, the structure is available. psi-blast searches with the cest sequence link it to cesf and to two other virulence-related t3ss chaperones for which structural information is available and also identify numerous other uncharacterised t3ss-associated proteins as chaperones. interestingly, the results show homology between cest/cesf and exsc from p. aeruginosa. as this protein has recently been reported to act as an anti-anti-activator, controlling transcription of t3ss genes in p. aeruginosa, it is plausible that cest and/or cesf might play similar roles in gene regulation. cesd is a member of the "chaperones of the translocators" family common to many t3sss. we have already shown that this family is characterised by the presence of three tandem tetratricopeptide repeats. cesab is a newly described chaperone that binds to espa and espb. homology searches fail to reveal any homologues of this protein, even in the two other systems that possess obvious espa homologues. cesd, is a recently described chaperone that, like cesd, binds to espd. psi-blast searches show that it is homologous to ssee from the spi- system, csee from the cpi- system of chromobacterium violaceum, lcrr from the ysc-yop system, acrr from aeromonas salmonicida and lssr from photorhabdus luminescens. none of these homologues has been characterised aside from lcrr. an initial report suggested that a mutation in lcrr had a regulatory effect, although this was subsequently shown to be the result of a polar effect on the downstream gene lcrg. however, an lcrr mutant was detected in a signature-tagged mutagenesis screen of y. pseudotuberculosis and shown to be attenuated both after oral and intra-peritoneal infection in balb-c mice, even though the mutation did not have a measurable effect on yop secretion or function in cell culture assays. these findings stand in contrast to a report that a y. pseudotuberculosis lcrr mutant had no virulence phenotype after oral infection of swiss albino mice. the homology between lcrr and cesd and between espd and yopb suggests that lcrr is likely to bind to yopb. regulators ler is a regulatory protein encoded with the lee operon, which has been extensively studied for its effects on gene expression within the lee-encoded system. it is known to be homologous to the global regulator h-ns, and is likely to adopt a similar fold, including a dimeric structure, particularly as key residues in the n-terminal dimerization domain are conserved in both proteins. h-ns is known to form heterodimers with other proteins from the h-ns family and to form complexes with members of the hha family of regulators. as the attaching and effacing pathogens possess two other h-ns-like proteins besides ler, and possess hha-like proteins, it is tempting to ask whether ler could, under any circumstances, form complexes with h-ns or stpa or with the hha-like proteins. quorum sensing through the ai- pathway is known to influence type-iii secretion in the lee-encoded system. in addition, there is some limited evidence to support an impact on type-iii secretion of quorum-sensing through the ai-1/acyl-homoserine lactone route. however, this latter route is less plausible, as e. coli cannot produce these signalling molecules, although it can probably sense signals produced by other bacteria through the luxr-like protein sdia. it is thus surprising that domain searches with the protein sequence from rorf of the lee identify a pfam domain entitled "sdia-regulated", which represents a conserved region approximately residues long common to yjik from e. coli k- and several other bacterial outer-membrane proteins, including some salmonella proteins that are regulated by sdia. this hints at a link between sdia-mediated sensing of other bacteria and lee-mediated type-iii secretion, which, twinned with growing evidence from salmonella and vibrio for an influence of sdia/luxr on virulence and type-iii secretion, suggests that it might be worth taking a fresh look at the influence of sdia on lee-mediated type-iii secretion. exhaustive psi-blast searches suggest that the "sdia-regulated domain" in fact consists of several nhl-like repeats, which are likely to fold up into a six-bladed beta-propeller. grlr and glra are a pair of recently characterised regulatory proteins encoded by adjacent genes within the lee. similarity has already been reported between glra and caif, a transcriptional regulator from e. coli and to a salmonella protein. psi-blast searches confirm this and report similarity to several other putative transcriptional regulators. psi-blast searches with glrr identify only one homologue outside the lee – a protein encoded within the unfinished salmonella bongori genome. interestingly, the s. bongori glrr homologue is located next to a grla homologue, suggesting a functional link between the two proteins and adding weight to the finding from yeast two-hybrid studies that glra and glrr interact with each other. the remaining coding sequences six coding sequences, which initially appeared to be orphans, have recently been shown to essential for lee-encoded type-iii secretion: orf orf orf orf orf and orf. thus, something can now be said about all of them based on homology and/or experimental data. psi-blast searches show that orf has homologues in several other systems: ssae in spi- cv in cpi- and ysce in the ysc-yop system. orf should thus be renamed esce. the ssae gene was found to be induced after invasion of a murine cultured cell line. like ysce in yersinia, orf2/esce is necessary for type-iii secretion through the lee-encoded t3ss. ysce interacts with tyea – thus it would seem likely that orf2/esce interacts with the c-terminal portion of sepl. ysce also interacts with yscg, a protein with no detectable homologue in the lee-encoded system. orf orf and orf possess homologues in t3sss closely related to the lee-encoded system, although not in the ysc-yop system. none of the orf or orf homologues has been investigated. however, the homologue of orf in the spi- system, ssam, has recently been characterised in s. enterica. an ssam deletion mutant was attenuated in vivo – in vitro it over-secreted, but failed to translocate, the effector ssej. furthermore, it also failed to secrete translocators. in addition, ssam was shown to interact with another effector spic within the bacterial cell. the story told by this complex set of phenotypes, reminiscent of the multi-faceted yopn-like proteins or of the flik/yscp-like proteins, stands at odds with the simpler global defect in type-iii secretion reported in an orf deletion mutant. as with the yopn-like and flik/yscp-like proteins, it remains to be seen whether these apparently dissimilar functional properties of homologous proteins from different t3sss will converge into a unified mechanistic picture or represent genuine evolutionary divergence of function. given that orf is known to interact with orf2/esce, it is tempting to speculate that, even in absence of homology, orf and the chief binding partner of ysce, yscg might play similar roles. as noted above, orf is a candidate for needle-length control, while the function and evolutionary origin of orf remain mysterious.  in this survey, we have discovered several new homologous relationships and woven together threads of evidence from our own in silico surveys and from published experimental studies to craft numerous novel functional predictions about the lee-encoded and other t3sss that can now be tested in the laboratory. we invite the scientific community to test our predictions. furthermore, in this sequence-rich, post-genomic era, we believe the time is right to roll out similar bioinformatics analyses over all known type-iii secretion systems and invite others to join us in this enterprise on our new web site, 3base, dedicated to type-iii secretion. 
like many other pathogens, enterohaemorrhagic and enteropathogenic strains of escherichia coli employ a type-iii secretion system to translocate bacterial effector proteins into host cells, where they then disrupt a range of cellular functions. many of the genes within this locus have been assigned names and functions through homology with the better characterised ysc-yop system from yersinia spp. we conclude that the vast majority of lee-encoded proteins do indeed possess homologues and that homology data can be used in combination with experimental data to make fresh functional predictions. however, the functions and homologies of many lee genes remain obscure. we have performed a fresh bioinformatics analysis of the lee.
 like many other pathogens, enterohaemorrhagic and enteropathogenic strains of escherichia coli employ a type-iii secretion system to translocate bacterial effector proteins into host cells, where they then disrupt a range of cellular functions. this system is encoded by the locus for enterocyte effacement. many of the genes within this locus have been assigned names and functions through homology with the better characterised ysc-yop system from yersinia spp. however, the functions and homologies of many lee genes remain obscure.  we have performed a fresh bioinformatics analysis of the lee. using psi-blast we have been able to identify several novel homologies between lee-encoded and ysc-yop-associated proteins: orf2/ysce, orf5/yscl, rorf8/esci, sepq/yscq, sepl/yopn-tyea, cesd2/lcrr. in addition, we highlight homology between espa and flagellin, and report many new homologues of the chaperone cest.  we conclude that the vast majority of lee-encoded proteins do indeed possess homologues and that homology data can be used in combination with experimental data to make fresh functional predictions. 