Iron-source preference of Staphylococcus aureus infections.

Iron-source preference of Staphylococcus aureus infections.

Skaar EP, Humayun M, Bae T, DeBord KL, Schneewind O.
Science. 2004 Sep 10;305(5690):1626-8.
Committee on Microbiology, 920 East 58th Street, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.

Although bacteria use different iron compounds in vitGro, the possibility that microbes distinguish between these iron sources during infection has hitherto not been examined. We applied stable isotope labeling to detect source-specific iron by mass spectrometry and show that Staphylococcus aureus preferentially imports heme iron over transferrin iron. By combining this approach with computational genome analysis, we identified hts (heme transport system), a gene cluster that promotes preferred heme iron import by S. aureus. Heme iron scavenging by means of hts is required for staphylococcal pathogenesis in animal hosts, indicating that heme iron is the preferred iron source during the initiation of infection.

PMID: 15361626 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]