The type VI secretion system induces intestinal macrophage redistribution and enhanced intestinal motility.

Unlabelled: Intestinal microbes, whether resident or transient, influence the physiology of their hosts, altering both the chemical and the physical characteristics of the gut. An example of the latter is the human pathogen ability to induce strong mechanical contractions, discovered in zebrafish. The underlying mechanism has remained unknown, but the phenomenon requires the actin crosslinking domain (ACD) of 's type VI secretion system (T6SS), a multicomponent protein syringe that pierces adjacent cells and delivers toxins.

Cell-type-specific responses to the microbiota across all tissues of the larval zebrafish.

Animal development proceeds in the presence of intimate microbial associations, but the extent to which different host cells across the body respond to resident microbes remains to be fully explored. Using the vertebrate model organism, the larval zebrafish, we assessed transcriptional responses to the microbiota across the entire body at single-cell resolution. We find that cell types across the body, not limited to tissues at host-microbe interfaces, respond to the microbiota.