siderophore

(noun)

Any medium-sized molecule that has a high specificity for binding or chelating iron; they are employed by microorganisms to obtain iron from the environment

Related Terms

Examples of siderophore in the following topics:

  • Siderophores

    • Siderophores produce specific proteins and some siderophores form soluble iron complexes to aid in iron acquisition for survival.
    • The siderophores are then utilized by the pathogen to obtain iron.
    • Therefore, siderophores are chelating agents that bind the iron ions.
    • This specific type of siderophore is the strongest identified siderophore, to date, with an extremely high binding affinity to Fe3+.
    • The discovery and identification of siderophores have allowed for the development of treatments targeting these siderophore-iron complexes.

  • Siderophores

    • Siderophores are amongst the strongest soluble Fe3+ binding agents known.
    • Many siderophores are nonribosomal peptides, although several are biosynthesised independently.
    • Siderophores are amongst the strongest binders to Fe3+ known, with enterobactin being one of the strongest of these.
    • Siderophores are usually classified by the ligands used to chelate the ferric iron.
    • Citric acid can also act as a siderophore.

  • Nonribosomal Peptide Antibiotics

    • They are often toxins, siderophores, or pigments.

  • ABC Transporters

    • In bacterial efflux systems, certain substances that need to be extruded from the cell include surface components of the bacterial cell (e.g. capsular polysaccharides, lipopolysaccharides, and teichoic acid), proteins involved in bacterial pathogenesis (e.g. hemolysis, heme-binding protein, and alkaline protease), heme, hydrolytic enzymes, S-layer proteins, competence factors, toxins, antibiotics, bacteriocins, peptide antibiotics, drugs and siderophores.

  • Chelating Agents

    • Many microbial species produce water-soluble pigments that serve as chelating agents, termed siderophores.