Bacterial martyrdom: phagocytes disabled by type VI secretion after engulfing bacteria.

To colonize during disease and prevent consumption by environmental unicellular eukaryotes, bacteria often disrupt phagocytosis. In this issue, Ma et al. (2009) show that Vibrio cholerae delivers the actin-crosslinking T6SS effector VgrG-1 following phagocytosis. The effector then causes irreversible cytoskeleton destruction, leading to bystander protection of the extracellular bacterial population.