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Iron acquisition with the natural siderophore enantiomers pyochelin and enantio-pyochelin in Pseudomonas species

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Abstract

The bacterial siderophore pyochelin is composed of salicylate and two cysteine-derived heterocycles, the second of which is modified by reduction and N-methylation during biosynthesis. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the first cysteine residue is converted to its D-isoform during thiazoline ring formation, whereas the second cysteine remains in its L-configuration. Stereochemistry is opposite in the Pseudomonas fluorescens siderophore enantio-pyochelin, in which the first ring originates from L-cysteine and the second ring from D-cysteine. Both siderophores promote growth of the producer organism during iron limitation and induce the expression of their biosynthesis genes by activating the transcriptional AraC-type regulator PchR. However, neither siderophore is functional as an iron carrier or as a transcriptional inducer in the other species, demonstrating that both processes are highly stereospecific. Stereospecificity of pyochelin/enantio-pyochelin-mediated iron uptake is ensured at two levels: (i) by the outer membrane siderophore receptors and (ii) by the cytosolic PchR regulators.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Dieter Haas for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation for Scientific Research (Project 31-113955/1).

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  1. Département de Microbiologie Fondamentale, Université de Lausanne, Bâtiment Biophore, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Zeb A. Youard, Nicolas Wenner & Cornelia Reimmann

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  1. Zeb A. Youard
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  2. Nicolas Wenner
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  3. Cornelia Reimmann
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Correspondence to Cornelia Reimmann.

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Youard, Z.A., Wenner, N. & Reimmann, C. Iron acquisition with the natural siderophore enantiomers pyochelin and enantio-pyochelin in Pseudomonas species. Biometals 24, 513–522 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-010-9399-9

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