Atomic view of cellular pump reveals how bacteria send out proteins

Bacteria have plenty of things to send out into world beyond their own boundaries: coordinating signals to other members of their species, poisons for their enemies, and devious instructions to manipulate host cells they have infected. Before any of this can occur, however, they must first get the shipments past their own cell membranes, and many bacteria have evolved specialized structures and systems for launching the proteins that do these jobs.