P.E.Klebba, completion of the crystal structures of FepA, a ferric catecholate transporter, FhuA, a ferric hydroxamate Three Paradoxes of Ferric transporter, FecA, the ferric citrate (FeCit) Enterobactin Uptake transporter, and the C-terminal domain of the protein that they require for functionality, TonB. Over many Phillip E. Klebba* preceding years microbiologists, geneticists, molecular biologists and biochemists described the multiple protein components of cell envelope iron Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, uptake systems, their energetic requirements, the University of Oklahoma, 620 Parrington dichotomy of beneficial and toxic ligands that enter Oval, Norman, OK 73019 USA, and Faculte the cell via their OM receptor proteins, the unique de Medecine, Institut Necker Enfants high-affinity nature of their uptake mechanism, their dependence on another cell envelope protein, TonB, Malades, 156, rue de Vaugirard 75015, their channel-forming properties, and their Paris France . *Corresponding author: Tel: 405- conformational dynamics in response to ligand 325-4969, Fax: 405-325-6111,
[email protected] binding. This research provided a conceptual foundation for the structural framework that the Bacteria need iron for so many critical crystallography revealed. metabolic processes, including glycolysis, energy The first siderophore receptor that was generation by electron transport, DNA synthesis, and crystallized and solved, FepA, contained, as expected defense against toxic reactive oxygen species, that and previously demonstrated, the largest known $- the element is indispensable to their survival. Several barrel of the OM, covered on the exterior surface by decades ago this iron requirement was correlated to large loops that bind ligands, and closed on the bacterial pathogenesis in animals and man, and periplasmic side by its own N-terminus.