Crusade for iron: iron uptake in unicellular eukaryotes and its significance for virulence.
The effective acquisition of iron is a pre-requisite for survival of all organisms, especially parasites that have a high iron requirement. In mammals, iron homeostasis is meticulously regulated; extracellular free iron is essentially unavailable and host iron availability has a crucial role in the host-pathogen relationship. Therefore, pathogens use specialized and effective mechanisms to acquire iron. In this review, we summarize the iron-uptake systems in eukaryotic unicellular organisms with particular focus on the pathogenic species: Candida albicans, Tritrichomonas foetus, Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania spp. We describe the diversity of their iron-uptake mechanisms and highlight the importance of the process for virulence.
Sutak
Robert
R
Department of Pathology and Bosch Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Lesuisse
Emmanuel
E
Tachezy
Jan
J
Richardson
Des R
DR
D000818:Animals; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism*; D007891:Leishmania / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D016835:Tritrichomonas foetus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014346:Trypanosoma brucei brucei / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence
D007501:Iron