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Distinct Roles for Intra- and Extracellular Siderophores during Aspergillus fumigatus Infection

Schrettl, M; Bignell, E; Kragl, C; Sabiha, Y; Loss, O; Eisendle, M; Wallner, A; ... Haas, H; + view all (2007) Distinct Roles for Intra- and Extracellular Siderophores during Aspergillus fumigatus Infection. PLoS Pathogens , 3 (9) , Article e128. 10.1371/journal.ppat.0030128. Green open access

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Abstract

Siderophore biosynthesis by the highly lethal mould Aspergillus fumigatus is essential for virulence, but non-existent in humans, presenting a rare opportunity to strategize therapeutically against this pathogen. We have previously demonstrated that A. fumigatus excretes fusarinine C and triacetylfusarinine C to capture extracellular iron, and uses ferricrocin for hyphal iron storage. Here, we delineate pathways of intra- and extracellular siderophore biosynthesis and show that A. fumigatus synthesizes a developmentally regulated fourth siderophore, termed hydroxyferricrocin, employed for conidial iron storage. By inactivation of the nonribosomal peptide synthetase SidC, we demonstrate that the intracellular siderophores are required for germ tube formation, asexual sporulation, resistance to oxidative stress, catalase A activity, and virulence. Restoration of the conidial hydroxyferricrocin content partially rescues the virulence of the apathogenic siderophore null mutant ΔsidA, demonstrating an important role for the conidial siderophore during initiation of infection. Abrogation of extracellular siderophore biosynthesis following inactivation of the acyl transferase SidF or the nonribosomal peptide synthetase SidD leads to complete dependence upon reductive iron assimilation for growth under iron-limiting conditions, partial sensitivity to oxidative stress, and significantly reduced virulence, despite normal germ tube formation. Our findings reveal distinct cellular and disease-related roles for intra- and extracellular siderophores during mammalian Aspergillus infection.

Type: Article
Title: Distinct Roles for Intra- and Extracellular Siderophores during Aspergillus fumigatus Infection
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.0030128
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.0030128
Language: English
Additional information: © 2007 Schrettl et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1416745
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