A precious metal heist

Abstract

Nearly all bacterial pathogens require iron to successfully infect their vertebrate hosts. The host molecule lipocalin-2 exploits this by sequestering bacterial siderophores as a mechanism of protection against infection. Raffatellu et al. (2009) show that Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium circumvents this through the production of the modified siderophore salmochelin.