4). The ΔentF strain was able to survive in the presence of EDDA in IMM, but could not multiply PI3K Inhibitor Library high throughput over a period of 10 days. Thus, the role of the entF gene depends on the degree of iron restriction in the growth medium. This suggests a significant role for entF gene in iron acquisition as compared with iron metabolism. There was no effect of the addition of EDDA on bacterial counts of wild-type Brucella in IMM until 192 h. This indicates a stronger iron acquisition system in the wild-type strain compared with the ΔentF strain (BAN1). Comparing the growth of the ΔentF strain in the IMM with and without EDDA, it appears that the role of
entF gene is more important when iron is strongly bound to iron chelators. This finding agrees with the observation by Gonzalez Carrero et al. (2002), who suggested that brucebactin may be a stronger chelating agent than DHBA. When grown in the presence of 0.1% erythritol in IMM, the ΔentF
mutant was unable to grow and began to die after 48 h (Fig. 5). Wild-type Brucella also had a longer lag phase in the presence of erythritol and the CFUs in the stationary phase were less compared with that in minimal medium without erythritol. This clearly suggests that much more iron is needed for the efficient metabolism of erythritol. The only link that directly connects erythritol catabolism and iron is the enzyme 3-keto-l-erythrose 4-phosphate dehydrogenase, which is involved in the pathway leading to conversion of erythritol into dihydroxy acetone phosphate (Fig. 1). This enzyme is an iron-containing Target Selective Inhibitor Library cost flavoprotein
(Sperry & Robertson, 1975a). Much more iron is needed in the presence of erythritol because of the involvement of an iron-linked enzyme in erythritol metabolism; this observation also agrees with the results from others (Bellaire et al., 2003a). This need could also explain Dolichyl-phosphate-mannose-protein mannosyltransferase the rapid death of the ΔentF strain, which is deficient in the ability to acquire iron and is thus unable to catabolize erythritol efficiently. The lack of the entF gene restricts the ability of the mutant to acquire iron, thus resulting in a scarcity of iron that leads to inactivity of the enzyme that is required to carry on the erythritol catabolism. Figure 5 shows the rapid death of the mutant strain in the presence of 0.1% erythritol in IMM. To rule out the possibility of any toxic effect of erythritol, supplementation with 50 μM FeCl3 restored the growth of the mutant strain comparable to that of the wild type. The first step in erythritol catabolism by Brucella involves the phosphorylation of erythritol via an ATP-dependent kinase (Sperry & Robertson, 1975a). Thus, the pathogen needs to invest energy first before it can metabolize the substrate and generate ATP. Moreover, erythritol kinase is eight times stronger in its activity than glucose kinase in B. abortus (Sperry & Robertson, 1975b).