Norepinephrine derepresses the Fur regulon of <i>Neisseria gonorrhoeae</i> to enable growth in iron-limited conditions.

ABSTRACT: Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Gc) is the gram-negative bacterium that causes gonorrhea, a prevalent sexually transmitted infection that can have life-threatening clinical sequelae. Gc requires iron for human infection and uses the iron-responsive, iron-binding transcriptional repressor Fur to maintain iron homeostasis. Gc infects mucosal sites, where the neuroendocrine hormone norepinephrine (NE) is produced by the autonomic nervous system and various epithelial and immune cell types. Here, we show that NE derepresses the Fur regulon to alter bacterial iron homeostasis and increase Gc survival. By RNA-seq, we determined that NE rewires gonococcal gene expression to increase capacity for iron uptake while enabling increased intracellular iron availability. Of the 30 genes that were differen

SUBMITTER: Westlake CS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12918729 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature