Enterobactin: an archetype for microbial iron transport.
Bacteria have aggressive acquisition processes for iron, an essential nutrient. Siderophores are small iron chelators that facilitate cellular iron transport. The siderophore enterobactin is a triscatechol derivative of a cyclic triserine lactone. Studies of the chemistry, regulation, synthesis, recognition, and transport of enterobactin make it perhaps the best understood of the siderophore-mediated iron uptake systems, displaying a lot of function packed into this small molecule. However, recent surprises include the isolation of corynebactin, a closely related trithreonine triscatechol derivative lactone first found in Gram-positive bacteria, and the crystal structure of a ferric enterobactin complex of a protein identified as an antibacterial component of the human innate immune system.
Raymond
Kenneth N
KN
Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1460, USA. raymond@socrates.berkeley.edu
Dertz
Emily A
EA
Kim
Sanggoo S
SS
D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D001665:Binding Sites; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D004758:Enterobactin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary
D002352:Carrier Proteins; D004758:Enterobactin; D007501:Iron