Study of iron metabolism in the human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii

Abstract

"Acinetobacter baumannii is a multidrug resistant nosocomial pathogen, that is considered by World Health Organization as a priority for research and development of new antibiotics. Iron is essential in all living organisms, as it is part of cofactors in proteins involved in multiple fundamental cellular processes. Iron is associated with proteins in Fe-S clusters, heme or mono/di-iron proteins. A. baumannii species have a variety of mechanisms for iron acquisition from the host environment, including heme uptake systems, siderophore secretion or iron passive diffusion through outer membrane porins. Cofactors such as heme and Fe-S clusters are synthesized by A. baumannii through the protoporphyrin-dependent branch and the ISC system, respectively. In this work, we aimed to study a possible link between proteins involved in heme biosynthesis and Fe-S cluster biogenesis pathways as well as understand how heme-bind proteins can acquire heme. For that, we focused on the interaction of proteins involved in the synthesis of Fe-S and heme cofactors, as well as proteins that harbor these cofactors for proper functioning.(...)"