The presence of large numbers of ubiquitin ligase mimics in the bacterial effector repertoire means ubiqutination may be a means for bacterial pathogens to secure their intracellular niche for prolonged periods, and also could explain the mobilization of caspase-3 to the extremities of the cell seen during infection with S. Typhimurium and E. coli (Flynn and Buret, 2008; Srikanth et al., 2010). The gene discussed is CASP3; the disease is infection.