Outer membrane protein OmpW of Escherichia coli is required for resistance to phagocytosis.

Eight-stranded β-barrel outer membrane proteins can confer bacterial virulence via resistance to host innate defenses. This resistance function of OmpW, which was recently identified as an eight-stranded β-barrel protein, was investigated in this study. Our results demonstrated that upregulation of OmpW correlated with increased bacterial survival during phagocytosis.