LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Ins and Outs: Recent Advancements in Membrane Protein-Mediated Prokaryotic Ferrous Iron Transport.

Photo by indulachanaka from unsplash

Iron is an essential nutrient for virtually every living organism, especially pathogenic prokaryotes. Despite its importance, however, both the acquisition and the export of this element require dedicated pathways that… Click to show full abstract

Iron is an essential nutrient for virtually every living organism, especially pathogenic prokaryotes. Despite its importance, however, both the acquisition and the export of this element require dedicated pathways that are dependent on oxidation state. Due to its solubility and kinetic lability, reduced ferrous iron (Fe2+) is useful to bacteria for import, chaperoning, and efflux. Once imported, ferrous iron may be loaded into apo and nascent enzymes and even sequestered into storage proteins under certain conditions. However, excess labile ferrous iron can impart toxicity as it may spuriously catalyze Fenton chemistry, thereby generating reactive oxygen species and leading to cellular damage. In response, it is becoming increasingly evident that bacteria have evolved Fe2+ efflux pumps to deal with conditions of ferrous iron excess and to prevent intracellular oxidative stress. In this work, we highlight recent structural and mechanistic advancements in our understanding of prokaryotic ferrous iron import and export systems, with a focus on the connection of these essential transport systems to pathogenesis. Given the connection of these pathways to the virulence of many increasingly antibiotic resistant bacterial strains, a greater understanding of the mechanistic details of ferrous iron cycling in pathogens could illuminate new pathways for future therapeutic developments.

Keywords: outs recent; prokaryotic ferrous; ins outs; transport; iron; ferrous iron

Journal Title: Biochemistry
Year Published: 2021

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.