The molecular mechanisms of actin-based intracellular motility by Listeria monocytogenes.

A key virulence trait of bacteria and viruses that multiply in the cytoplasm of the infected cell is their ability to direct movement intracellularly and to spread from cell-to-cell. Intracellular movement is effected by harnessing components of the host microfilament system. This mode of locomotion by intracytoplasmic parasites has recently gained much interest as a model to examine microfilament assembly and function. Of the intracellular bacteria employing association with the host cytoskeleton to effect movement, the Gram-positive pathogen Listeria monocytogenes is the most well studied. This review summarizes the current state of the understanding, at the molecular level, of how L. monocytogenes subverts the host cell contractile machinery to meet its own need to move and spread within infected host cells.