Extracellular zinc competitively inhibits manganese uptake and compromises oxidative stress management in Streptococcus pneumoniae.

ABSTRACT: Streptococcus pneumoniae requires manganese for colonization of the human host, but the underlying molecular basis for this requirement has not been elucidated. Recently, it was shown that zinc could compromise manganese uptake and that zinc levels increased during infection by S. pneumoniae in all the niches that it colonized. Here we show, by quantitative means, that extracellular zinc acts in a dose dependent manner to competitively inhibit manganese uptake by S. pneumoniae, with an EC50 of 30.2 µM for zinc in cation-defined media. By exploiting the ability to directly manipulate S. pneumoniae accumulation of manganese, we analyzed the connection between manganese and superoxide dismutase (SodA), a primary source of protection for S. pneumoniae against oxidative stress. We show that man

SUBMITTER: Eijkelkamp BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3928430 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature