Pulcherriminic acid modulates iron availability and protects against oxidative stress during microbial interactions

Vincent Charron-Lamoureux (), Lounès Haroune, Maude Pomerleau, Léo Hall, Frédéric Orban, Julie Leroux, Adrien Rizzi, Jean-Sébastien Bourassa, Nicolas Fontaine, Élodie V. d’Astous, Philippe Dauphin-Ducharme, Claude Y. Legault, Jean-Philippe Bellenger and Pascale B. Beauregard ()
Additional contact information
Vincent Charron-Lamoureux: Université de Sherbrooke
Lounès Haroune: Université de Sherbrooke
Maude Pomerleau: Université de Sherbrooke
Léo Hall: Université de Sherbrooke
Frédéric Orban: Université de Sherbrooke
Julie Leroux: Université de Sherbrooke
Adrien Rizzi: Université de Sherbrooke
Jean-Sébastien Bourassa: Université de Sherbrooke
Nicolas Fontaine: Université de Sherbrooke
Élodie V. d’Astous: Université de Sherbrooke
Philippe Dauphin-Ducharme: Université de Sherbrooke
Claude Y. Legault: Université de Sherbrooke
Jean-Philippe Bellenger: Université de Sherbrooke
Pascale B. Beauregard: Université de Sherbrooke

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Siderophores are soluble or membrane-embedded molecules that bind the oxidized form of iron, Fe(III), and play roles in iron acquisition by microorganisms. Fe(III)-bound siderophores bind to specific receptors that allow microbes to acquire iron. However, certain soil microbes release a compound (pulcherriminic acid, PA) that, upon binding to Fe(III), forms a precipitate (pulcherrimin) that apparently functions by reducing iron availability rather than contributing to iron acquisition. Here, we use Bacillus subtilis (PA producer) and Pseudomonas protegens as a competition model to show that PA is involved in a peculiar iron-managing system. The presence of the competitor induces PA production, leading to precipitation of Fe(III) as pulcherrimin, which prevents oxidative stress in B. subtilis by restricting the Fenton reaction and deleterious ROS formation. In addition, B. subtilis uses its known siderophore bacillibactin to retrieve Fe(III) from pulcherrimin. Our findings indicate that PA plays multiple roles by modulating iron availability and conferring protection against oxidative stress during inter-species competition.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38222-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-38222-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38222-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().