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. 2019 Oct 29;116(44):21980-21982.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1913991116. Epub 2019 Oct 14.

Staphylococcus aureus exhibits heterogeneous siderophore production within the vertebrate host

William J Perry  1   2   3 , Jeffrey M Spraggins  1   2   4 , Jessica R Sheldon  3   5 , Caroline M Grunenwald  3   5 , David E Heinrichs  6 , James E Cassat  3   5   7 , Eric P Skaar  8   5 , Richard M Caprioli  1   2   4   9   10   11
Affiliations

Staphylococcus aureus exhibits heterogeneous siderophore production within the vertebrate host

William J Perry et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Siderophores, iron-scavenging small molecules, are fundamental to bacterial nutrient metal acquisition and enable pathogens to overcome challenges imposed by nutritional immunity. Multimodal imaging mass spectrometry allows visualization of host-pathogen iron competition, by mapping siderophores within infected tissue. We have observed heterogeneous distributions of Staphylococcus aureus siderophores across infectious foci, challenging the paradigm that the vertebrate host is a uniformly iron-depleted environment to invading microbes.

Keywords: infectious disease; metallophore; mulitmodal molecular imaging; nutritional immunity; siderophore.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
MALDI IMS reveals siderophores SA and SB within the infectious environment. (A) H&E stained abscesses. A zoom shows abscess morphology containing SACs (arrows). (B) MALDI FT-ICR IMS reveals SA colocalizing with infection sites. (C) SB is more closely localized to SACs than SA. (D) Fe distributions colocalize with select SACs (arrows). (E) A spectral zoom shows a signal corresponding to SA at m/z 479.1155, 0.01 ppm mass error, and the chemical structure of SA, [M-H]−. (F) A spectral zoom shows a signal corresponding to SB at m/z 447.1369, 0.09 ppm mass error, and the chemical structure of SB, [M-H]−.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Multimodal imaging of 10-DPI S. aureus PisdAgfp infection characterizes utilization of SA and SB across tissue types. (A) Siderophore distributions localize to regions of staphylococcal Fe starvation (blue arrows). Fe distributions colocalize to areas that lack GFP signal in the fluorescent micrograph (white arrows). (B) Siderophore distributions in the heart expand outside of the abscess. (C) Heterogeneity in siderophore and Fe distributions as well as Fe starvation can be observed from zooms of a single kidney abscess, similar to distributions within the liver.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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