title: Zn(II) metabolism in prokaryotes.
abstract: It is difficult to over-state the importance of Zn(II) in biology. It is a ubiquitous essential metal ion and plays a role in catalysis, protein structure and perhaps as a signal molecule, in organisms from all three kingdoms. Of necessity, organisms have evolved to optimise the intracellular availability of Zn(II) despite the extracellular milieu. To this end, prokaryotes contain a range of Zn(II) import, Zn(II) export and/or binding proteins, some of which utilise either ATP or the chemiosmotic potential to drive the movement of Zn(II) across the cytosolic membrane, together with proteins that facilitate the diffusion of this ion across either the outer or inner membranes of prokaryotes. This review seeks to give an overview of the systems currently classified as altering Zn(II) availability in prokaryotes.
authors.affiliation: Cardiff School of Biosciences (2), Cardiff University, Museum Avenue, P.O. Box 911, Cardiff CF10 3US, Wales, UK.
authors.forename: Dayle K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Blencowe
authors.forename: Andrew P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Morby
mesh_terms: D000251:Adenosine Triphosphatases / Q000235:genetics; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017136:Ion Transport; D008954:Models, Biological; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011387:Prokaryotic Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D015032:Zinc / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018832:Molecular Chaperones; D000251:Adenosine Triphosphatases; D015032:Zinc