iron
- Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyIdentification of Key Determinants of Staphylococcus aureus Vaginal Colonization
Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic pathogen able to cause a wide variety of infections in humans. Recent reports have suggested an increasing prevalence of MRSA in pregnant and postpartum women, coinciding with the increased incidence of MRSA infections in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and newborn nurseries. Vertical transmission from mothers to infants...
- Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyPulmonary Iron Limitation Induced by Exogenous Type I IFN Protects Mice from Cryptococcus gattii Independently of T Cells
Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii cause fatal infection in immunodeficient and immunocompetent individuals. While these fungi are sibling species, C. gattii infects very few AIDS patients, while...
- Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceSuperoxide Dismutase and Pseudocatalase Increase Tolerance to Hg(II) in Thermus thermophilus HB27 by Maintaining the Reduced Bacillithiol Pool
Thermus thermophilus is a deep-branching thermophilic aerobe. It is a member of the Deinococcus-Thermus phylum that, together with the Aquificae, constitute the earliest branching aerobic bacterial lineages; therefore, this organism serves as a model for early diverged bacteria (R. K. Hartmann, J. Wolters, B. Kröger, S. Schultze, et al.,...
- Editor's Pick Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyStreptomyces Volatile Compounds Influence Exploration and Microbial Community Dynamics by Altering Iron Availability
Microbial growth and community interactions are influenced by a multitude of factors. A new mode of Streptomyces growth—exploration—is promoted by interactions with the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and requires the emission of trimethylamine (TMA), a pH-raising volatile compound. We show...
- Editor's Pick Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyDopamine Is a Siderophore-Like Iron Chelator That Promotes Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Virulence in Mice
Here we show that dopamine increases bacterial iron incorporation and promotes Salmonella Typhimurium growth both in vitro and in vivo. These observations suggest the potential hazards of pharmacological catecholamine administration in patients with bacterial sepsis but also suggest that the inhibition of bacterial iron acquisition might provide a useful approach to antimicrobial therapy.