Protein secretion is almost universally employed by bacteria. Some proteins are retained on the cell surface, whereas others are released into the extracellular milieu, often playing a key role in virulence. In this review, we discuss the diverse types and potential functions of post-translational modifications (PTMs) occurring to extracellular bacterial proteins.
Keywords: Post-translational modification; acetylation; bacterial pathogens; bacterial virulence factors; glycosylation; lipidation; methylation; protein secretion; proteomics.