Interactions between Listeria monocytogenes and host mammalian cells.

Bacterial pathogens have developed a variety of strategies to induce their own internalization into mammalian cells which are normally nonphagocytic. The Gram-positive bacterium Listeria monocytogenes enters into many cultured cell types using two bacterial surface proteins, InlA (internalin) and InlB. In both cases, entry takes place after engagement of a receptor and induction of a series of signaling events.