To counter host defence mechanisms intracellular bacterial pathogens have evolved numerous strategies to evade immune detection, replicate and cause infection. Many pathogens manipulate endocytic pathways to gain entry into host cells and generate a membrane-enclosed replicative niche. This frequently involves hijacking or inhibiting the host cell trafficking machinery, first to generate the pathogen containing vacuole (PCV) and subsequently to prevent fusion with lysosomal degradative compartments. Concomitantly the pathogen often endeavors to decorate the PCV with host proteins and lipids that mimic other host cell organelles in order to circumvent innate immune detection, expand the replicative niche and acquire nutrients to support intracellular replication (Di Russo Case and Samuel, 2016; Personnic et al., 2016). This process is often orchestrated through the action of molecular syringe-like secretion systems that deliver bacterial effector proteins directly into the host cell cytoplasm.