Severe zinc depletion of Escherichia coli: roles for high affinity zinc binding by ZinT, zinc transport and zinc-independent proteins.

ABSTRACT: Zinc ions play indispensable roles in biological chemistry. However, bacteria have an impressive ability to acquire Zn(2+) from the environment, making it exceptionally difficult to achieve Zn(2+) deficiency, and so a comprehensive understanding of the importance of Zn(2+) has not been attained. Reduction of the Zn(2+) content of Escherichia coli growth medium to 60 nm or less is reported here for the first time, without recourse to chelators of poor specificity. Cells grown in Zn(2+)-deficient medium had a reduced growth rate and contained up to five times less cellular Zn(2+). To understand global responses to Zn(2+) deficiency, microarray analysis was conducted of cells grown under Zn(2+)-replete and Zn(2+)-depleted conditions in chemostat cultures. Nine genes were up-regulated more tha

SUBMITTER: Graham AI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2709383 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature