Biology Commons^™

Evidence That A Respiratory Shield In Escherichia Coli Protects A Low-Molecular-Mass Fe-Ii Pool From O2-Dependent Oxidation, Joshua D. Wofford, Naimah Bolaji, Nathaniel Dziuba, Franklin Wayne Outten, Paul A. Lindahl

Faculty Publications

Iron is critical for virtually all organisms, yet major questions remain regarding the systems' level understanding of iron in whole cells. Here, we obtained Mössbauer and EPR spectra of Escherichia coli cells prepared under different nutrient iron concentrations, carbon sources, growth phases, and O₂ concentrations to better understand their global iron content. We investigated wild-type cells and those lacking Fur, FtnA, Bfr, and Dps proteins. The coarse-grain iron content of exponentially growing cells consisted of iron-sulfur clusters, variable amounts of nonheme high-spin Fe^II species, and an unassigned residual quadrupole doublet. The iron in stationary-phase cells was dominated by …