Regulation of Type VI secretion systems of <i>Burkholderia thailandensis</i> during transition to intracellular lifestyle

Regulation of Type VI secretion systems of Burkholderia thailandensis during transition to intracellular lifestyle | bioRxiv Skip to main content Home About Submit ALERTS / RSS Search for this keyword Advanced Search New Results Regulation of Type VI secretion systems of Burkholderia thailandensis during transition to intracellular lifestyle View ORCID Profile Hoi Ching Cheung , Daria Jacqueline Wüst , View ORCID Profile Miro Thorsten Wilhelm Plum , View ORCID Profile Patricia Reist Iscar , View ORCID Profile Marek Basler doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.30.702787 Hoi Ching Cheung 1 Biozentrum, University of Basel , Spitalstrasse 41, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Hoi Ching Cheung Daria Jacqueline Wüst 1 Biozentrum, University of Basel , Spitalstrasse 41, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Miro Thorsten Wilhelm Plum 1 Biozentrum, University of Basel , Spitalstrasse 41, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Miro Thorsten Wilhelm Plum Patricia Reist Iscar 1 Biozentrum, University of Basel , Spitalstrasse 41, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Patricia Reist Iscar Marek Basler 1 Biozentrum, University of Basel , Spitalstrasse 41, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Marek Basler For correspondence: marek.basler{at}unibas.ch Abstract Full Text Info/History Metrics Supplementary material Preview PDF Summary Pathogenic bacteria tightly regulate gene expression in response to environmental cues. In Burkholderia species, the Type VI Secretion Systems (T6SS) mediate interbacterial competition and host cell interactions. Here, we show that B. thailandensis switches from the antibacterial T6SS-1 to the anti-eukaryotic T6SS-5 during phagosomal maturation. While T6SS-1 expression persists in the host cells, its assembly progressively declines with increasing T6SS-5 expression. This switch is controlled by the two-component system VirAG as deletion of virA blocks T6SS-5 expression and restores T6SS-1 assembly in host cells. Notably, T6SS-1 activity in host cells induces mitochondrial fragmentation and apoptosis. Our data suggest that Burkholderia has evolved a mechanism to silence T6SS-1 upon host entry to preserve its replicative niche. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Funder Information Declared European Research Council , 865105 Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds, https://ror.org/00dkye506 Copyright The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license . Back to top Previous Next Posted January 30, 2026. Download PDF Supplementary Material Email Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv. NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article. Your Email * Your Name * Send To * Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. You are going to email the following Regulation of Type VI secretion systems of Burkholderia thailandensis during transition to intracellular lifestyle Message Subject (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv Message Body (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website. 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Share Regulation of Type VI secretion systems of Burkholderia thailandensis during transition to intracellular lifestyle Hoi Ching Cheung , Daria Jacqueline Wüst , Miro Thorsten Wilhelm Plum , Patricia Reist Iscar , Marek Basler bioRxiv 2026.01.30.702787; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.30.702787 Share This Article: Copy Citation Tools Regulation of Type VI secretion systems of Burkholderia thailandensis during transition to intracellular lifestyle Hoi Ching Cheung , Daria Jacqueline Wüst , Miro Thorsten Wilhelm Plum , Patricia Reist Iscar , Marek Basler bioRxiv 2026.01.30.702787; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.30.702787 Citation Manager Formats BibTeX Bookends EasyBib EndNote (tagged) EndNote 8 (xml) Medlars Mendeley Papers RefWorks Tagged Ref Manager RIS Zotero Tweet Widget Facebook Like Google Plus One Subject Area Microbiology Subject Areas All Articles Animal Behavior and Cognition (8164) Biochemistry (19027) Bioengineering (15171) Bioinformatics (45808) Biophysics (22958) Cancer Biology (20248) Cell Biology (27495) Clinical Trials (138) Developmental Biology (14233) Ecology (21529) Epidemiology (2067) Evolutionary Biology (25940) Genetics (16436) Genomics (23979) Immunology (19176) Microbiology (43488) Molecular Biology (18483) Neuroscience (95839) Paleontology (717) Pathology (3064) Pharmacology and Toxicology (5253) Physiology (8339) Plant Biology (16378) Scientific Communication and Education (2123) Synthetic Biology (4675) Systems Biology (10451) Zoology (2436)

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