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No iron in Lyme
Genome Biology volume 1, Article number: spotlight-20000609-02 (2000)
Iron sequestration is one way that human cells limit bacterial growth. In the 2 June issue of Science, Posey and Gherardini show that the Lyme disease pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi, has responded by eliminating most genes that encode iron-requiring proteins, and substituting manganese for iron in the few metalloproteins that are left (Science 2000, 288:1651-1653). This is possible because the bacterium is an obligate parasite that lacks the enzymes for most biosynthetic pathways. As a result the bacterium grows happily with fewer than 10 atoms of iron present per cell.
References
Iron uptake mechanisms of pathogenic bacteria.
Science Magazine, [http://www.sciencemag.org/]
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Wells, W. No iron in Lyme. Genome Biol 1, spotlight-20000609-02 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1186/gb-spotlight-20000609-02
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/gb-spotlight-20000609-02
Keywords
- Iron
- Manganese
- Human Cell
- Bacterial Growth
- Biosynthetic Pathway