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The crystal structure of HasA, a hemophore secreted by Serratia marcescens

Nature Structural Biology volume 6, pages 516–520 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Free iron availability is strongly limited in vertebrate hosts, making the iron acquisition by siderophores inappropriate. Pathogenic bacteria have developed various ways to use the host's iron from iron-containing proteins. Serratia marcescens can use the iron from hemoglobin through the secretion of a hemophore called HasA, which takes up the heme from hemoglobin and shuttles it to the receptor HasR, which in turn, releases heme into the bacterium. We report here the first crystal structure of such a hemophore, bound to a heme group at two different pH values and at a resolution of 1.9 Å. The structure reveals a new original fold and suggests a hypothetical mechanism for both heme uptake and release.

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Figure 1: Stereo view of the heme region.
Figure 2: Backbone structure of HasA.
Figure 3: Stereo view of the HasA Cα trace.
Figure 4: View of the residues in the heme binding site.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique through the program Physique et Chimie du Vivant. We thank K. Brown and Y. Bourne for carefully reading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d'Architecture et Fonction des Macromolécules Biologiques UPR 9039, Institut de Biologie Structurale et Microbiologie, CNRS, 31, chemin Joseph Aiguier, 13402 Marseille Cedex 20, France

    Pascal Arnoux & Mirjam Czjzek

  2. Institut de Biologie et Chimie des Protéines, CNRS, 7 passage du Vercors, 69367 Lyon Cedex 07, France

    Richard Haser

  3. Laboratoire de Résonance Magnétique Nucléaire, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Dr. Roux, Paris, 75724 Cedex 20, France

    Nadia Izadi, Anne Lecroisey & Muriel Delepierre

  4. Unité de Physiologie Cellulaire, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Dr. Roux, Paris, 75724 Cedex 20, France

    Cécile Wandersman

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  1. Pascal Arnoux
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  2. Richard Haser
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  3. Nadia Izadi
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  4. Anne Lecroisey
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  7. Mirjam Czjzek
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Correspondence to Mirjam Czjzek.

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Arnoux, P., Haser, R., Izadi, N. et al. The crystal structure of HasA, a hemophore secreted by Serratia marcescens. Nat Struct Mol Biol 6, 516–520 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/9281

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