Overview of Yersinia pestis Metallophores: Yersiniabactin and Yersinopine

Abstract

The pathogenic anaerobic bacteria Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis), which is well known as the plague causative agent, has the ability to escape or inhibit innate immune system responses, which can result in host death even before the activation of adaptive responses. Bites from infected fleas in nature transmit Y. pestis between mammalian hosts causing bubonic plague. It was recognized that a host’s ability to retain iron is essential in fighting invading pathogens. To proliferate during infection, Y. pestis, like most bacteria, has various iron transporters that enable it to acquire iron from its hosts. The siderophore-dependent iron transport system was found to be crucial for the pathogenesis of this bacterium. Siderophores are low-molecular-weight metabolites with a high affinity for Fe3+. These compounds are produced in the surrounding environment to chelate iron. The siderophore secreted by Y. pestis is yersiniabactin (Ybt). Another metallophore produced by this bacterium, yersinopine, is of the opine type and shows similarities with both staphylopine and pseudopaline produced by Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, respectively. This paper sheds light on the most important aspects of the two Y. pestis metallophores as well as aerobactin a siderophore no longer secreted by this bacterium due to frameshift mutation in its genome.

Metallophore Activity toward the Rare Earth Elements by Bacteria Isolated from Acid Mine Drainage Due to Coal Mining

“…In regard to the other genera identified in this study (Serratia, Yersinia, and Chryseobacterium), metal interactions are known. Serratia marcescens is known to have high-level resistance to certain metals [50,51], Yersinia pestis is known to have metallophores, some similar to those from P. aeruginosa [52], and Chryseobacterium species can also resist metals [53] but are not known for metallophore production. One study has implicated a siderophore in Pseudomonas fluorescence for binding of various REEs (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, and Er) [47].…”

Experimental and DFT Study of Monensinate and Salinomycinate Complexes Containing {Fe3(µ3–O)}7+ Core

“…Metal ions are essential for maintaining homeostasis in organisms ranging from the microscopic world of bacteria to the macroscopic scale of plants, animals, and, of course, human beings [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. The importance of M n+ is rooted not in their varying concentration in each organism, but in the pathologies arising from an abnormal amount of certain metal ions in a given life form.…”

“…If we look at some of the simplest living organisms, for example, representatives of microbiota, we witness an interesting natural way of scavenging insoluble iron(III) from the environment—these organisms synthesize specific compounds called siderophores [ 1 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], which effectively bind iron(III) and transfer it to the intracellular compartment. Based on their structures, siderophores have been divided into five groups—catecholates, phenolates, hydroxamates, carboxylates, and a mixed type [ 27 ].…”

Identification of Drug Targets and Their Inhibitors in Yersinia pestis Strain 91001 through Subtractive Genomics, Machine Learning, and MD Simulation Approaches

“…Yersinia pestis ( Y. pestis ), the causative agent of plague, is a Gram-negative bacterium that was initially extracted by Alexandre Yersin in Hong Kong. The plague impacted human life through a number of pandemics that were originally spread from Central Asia to Africa and Europe [ 1 ]. During the last 150 years, plague reached every continent.…”