The outer membrane protects Gram‐negative bacteria against a harsh environment. At the same time, the embedded proteins fulfil a number of tasks that are crucial to the bacterial cell, such as solute and protein translocation, as well as signal transduction. Unlike membrane proteins from all other sources, integral outer membrane proteins do not consist of transmembrane α‐helices, but instead fold into antiparallel β‐barrels. Over recent years, the atomic structures of several outer membrane proteins, belonging to six families, have been determined. They include the OmpA membrane domain, the OmpX protein, phospholipase A, general porins (OmpF, PhoE), substrate‐specific porins (LamB, ScrY) and the TonB‐dependent iron siderophore transporters FhuA and FepA. These crystallographic studies have yielded invaluable insight into and decisively advanced the understanding of the functions of these intriguing proteins. Our review is aimed at discussing their common principles and peculiarities as well as open questions associated with them.

Summary: Bacterial plant‐pathogenic Xanthomonas strains translocate transcription activator‐like (TAL) effectors into plant cells to function as specific transcription factors. Only a few plant target genes of TAL effectors have been identified, so far. Three plant SWEET genes encoding putative sugar transporters are known to be induced by TAL effectors from rice‐pathogenic Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). We predict and validate that expression of OsSWEET14 is induced by a novel TAL effector, Tal5, from an African Xoo strain. Artificial TAL effectors (ArtTALs) were constructed to individually target 20 SWEET orthologs in rice. They were used as designer virulence factors to study which rice SWEET genes can support Xoo virulence. The Tal5 target box differs from those of the already known TAL effectors TalC, AvrXa7 and PthXo3, which also induce expression of OsSWEET14, suggesting evolutionary convergence on key targets. ArtTALs efficiently complemented an Xoo talC mutant, demonstrating that specific induction of OsSWEET14 is the key target of TalC. ArtTALs that specifically target individual members of the rice SWEET family revealed three known and two novel SWEET genes to support bacterial virulence. Our results demonstrate that five phylogenetically close SWEET proteins, which presumably act as sucrose transporters, can support Xoo virulence.

SUMMARY: A review of type III effectors (T3 effectors) from strains of Xanthomonas reveals a growing list of candidate and known effectors based on functional assays and sequence and structural similarity searches of genomic data. We propose that the effectors and suspected effectors should be distributed into 39 so‐called Xop groups reflecting sequence similarity. Some groups have structural motifs for putative enzymatic functions, and recent studies have provided considerable insight into the interaction with host factors in their function as mediators of virulence and elicitors of resistance for a few specific T3 effectors. Many groups are related to T3 effectors of plant and animal pathogenic bacteria, and several groups appear to have been exploited primarily by Xanthomonas species based on available data. At the same time, a relatively large number of candidate effectors remain to be examined in more detail with regard to their function within host cells.

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae causes bacterial blight of rice (Oryza sativa L.), a major disease that constrains production of this staple crop in many parts of the world. We report here on the complete genome sequence of strain PXO99A and its comparison to two previously sequenced strains, KACC10331 and MAFF311018, which are highly similar to one another. The PXO99A genome is a single circular chromosome of 5,240,075 bp, considerably longer than the genomes of the other strains (4,941,439 bp and 4,940,217 bp, respectively), and it contains 5083 protein-coding genes, including 87 not found in KACC10331 or MAFF311018. PXO99A contains a greater number of virulence-associated transcription activator-like effector genes and has at least ten major chromosomal rearrangements relative to KACC10331 and MAFF311018. PXO99A contains numerous copies of diverse insertion sequence elements, members of which are associated with 7 out of 10 of the major rearrangements. A rapidly-evolving CRISPR (clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats) region contains evidence of dozens of phage infections unique to the PXO99A lineage. PXO99A also contains a unique, near-perfect tandem repeat of 212 kilobases close to the replication terminus. Our results provide striking evidence of genome plasticity and rapid evolution within Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. The comparisons point to sources of genomic variation and candidates for strain-specific adaptations of this pathogen that help to explain the extraordinary diversity of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae genotypes and races that have been isolated from around the world.

The gram-negative plant-pathogenic bacteriumXanthomonas campestrispv. vesicatoria is the causative agent of bacterial spot disease in pepper and tomato plants, which leads to economically important yield losses. This pathosystem has become a well-established model for studying bacterial infection strategies. Here, we present the whole-genome sequence of the pepper-pathogenicXanthomonas campestrispv. vesicatoria strain 85-10, which comprises a 5.17-Mb circular chromosome and four plasmids. The genome has a high G+C content (64.75%) and signatures of extensive genome plasticity. Whole-genome comparisons revealed a gene order similar to bothXanthomonas axonopodispv. citri andXanthomonas campestrispv. campestris and a structure completely different fromXanthomonas oryzaepv. oryzae. A total of 548 coding sequences (12.2%) are unique toX. campestrispv. vesicatoria. In addition to a type III secretion system, which is essential for pathogenicity, the genome of strain 85-10 encodes all other types of protein secretion systems described so far in gram-negative bacteria. Remarkably, one of the putative type IV secretion systems encoded on the largest plasmid is similar to the Icm/Dot systems of the human pathogensLegionella pneumophilaandCoxiella burnetii. Comparisons with other completely sequenced plant pathogens predicted six novel type III effector proteins and several other virulence factors, including adhesins, cell wall-degrading enzymes, and extracellular polysaccharides.