Abstract:Type IV secretion system (T4SS) is not only used for T-DNA transfer by Agrobacterium tumefaciens, but also used for plasmid conjugation by many bacteria. Moreover, many bacteria use T4SS to translocate various substrates into a wide variety of organisms including bacterial and eukaryotic cells. Therefore, the studies on the structure and substrate-translocating mechanism of T4SS continue to attract the concentration of researchers and many important progresses in this research field have been made recently. Agrobacterial T4SS that is used for T-DNA transfer is called VirB/VirD4 system, which is one of the best-characterized T4SSs in Gram-negative bacteria, and thus becomes a typical model of T4SS. This review highlights the recent breakthroughs in the structural biology of Agrobacterial VirB/VirD4 system and summarizes current understanding of the molecular mechanism of T4SS substrate translocation.