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Bloodletting by physicians before the era of antibiotics may seem like a barbaric practice, but it may have been of some benefit to patients suffering from bacterial infections. In her Perspective, Rouault explains that most bacteria depend on a source of iron to grow and survive inside their animal hosts. A new study (Skaar et al.) shows that the pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus uses several ingenious strategies to obtain iron from heme stored as hemoglobin in the red blood cells of its mammalian hosts.
The author is in the Section on Human Iron Metabolism, Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. E-mail: trou{at}helix.nih.gov
Serologic Assay To Quantify Human Immunoglobulin G Antibodies to the Staphylococcus aureus Iron Surface Determinant B Antigen.
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Clin. Vaccine Immunol.
16, 739-748
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Pathway for Heme Uptake from Human Methemoglobin by the Iron-regulated Surface Determinants System of Staphylococcus aureus.
H. Zhu, G. Xie, M. Liu, J. S. Olson, M. Fabian, D. M. Dooley, and B. Lei (2008)
J. Biol. Chem.
283, 18450-18460
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
A Transcription Factor Cascade Involving Fep1 and the CCAAT-Binding Factor Php4 Regulates Gene Expression in Response to Iron Deficiency in the Fission Yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe.
The Mechanism of Direct Heme Transfer from the Streptococcal Cell Surface Protein Shp to HtsA of the HtsABC Transporter.
T. K. Nygaard, G. C. Blouin, M. Liu, M. Fukumura, J. S. Olson, M. Fabian, D. M. Dooley, and B. Lei (2006)
J. Biol. Chem.
281, 20761-20771
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Identification of Amino Acid Residues Involved in Heme Binding and Hemoprotein Utilization in the Porphyromonas gingivalis Heme Receptor HmuR.
X. Liu, T. Olczak, H.-C. Guo, D. W. Dixon, and C. A. Genco (2006)
Infect. Immun.
74, 1222-1232
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Unraveling the Secret Lives of Bacteria: Use of In Vivo Expression Technology and Differential Fluorescence Induction Promoter Traps as Tools for Exploring Niche-Specific Gene Expression.
H. Rediers, P. B. Rainey, J. Vanderleyden, and R. De Mot (2005)
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev.
69, 217-261
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
