Patent ID: 7314737

Claim:
A method of effecting a change in a cell, wherein a bacterial transfer system is contacted with the cell to be changed, said bacterial transfer system including a protein transport system comprising a pore comprising a VirB protein complex and a VirD4 coupling factor, wherein the bacterial transfer system comprises a fusion protein or is capable of making a fusion protein which is introduced into the cell to be changed using the protein transport system, the method comprising: introducing the fusion protein into the cell to be changed, which fusion protein comprises a first part A and a second part B, the first part A and second part B derived from different proteins, wherein; the first part A comprises an oligopeptide means for transporting part B through said pore, said means having the 20 most C-terminal amino acids of a bacterial protein transported through said pore, and at least two arginine or lysine amino acids and at least 50% hydrophilic or neutral amino acids; and the second part B comprises a polypeptide capable of exerting a cell-changing activity in the cell to be changed, wherein a C-terminal end of the polypeptide of the second part B is linked to an N-terminal end of the first part A, with the proviso that if the fusion protein comprises a first part A derived from VirE2, the fusion protein does not comprise the 84 N-terminal amino acids of VirE2; and effecting a change in the cell.