Overview of Yersinia pestis Metallophores: Yersiniabactin and Yersinopine

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Although there was a significant decrease in morbidity and mortality due to plague-related infections throughout the 20th century, these have not been eradicated. The plague-causing pathogen is the Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis. Several factors cause the virulence of this bacterium including metallophores, which are secondary metabolites for metal ions chelation. Yersinia pestis produces two metallophores: yersiniabactin, for iron chelation (siderophore), and an opine type metallophore called yersinopine. This review summarizes all the important characteristics of these two metallophores. Full descriptions of their structures, biosynthesis pathways, and genetic regulation are included in this paper. ABSTRACT: The pathogenic anaerobic bacteria Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis), which is well known as the plague causative agent, has the ability to escape or inhibit innate immune system responses, which can result in host death even before the activation of adaptive responses. Bites from infected fleas in nature transmit Y. pestis between mammalian hosts causing bubonic plague. It was recognized that a host’s ability to retain iron is essential in fighting invading pathogens. To proliferate during infection, Y. pestis, like most bacteria, has various iron transporters that enable it to acquire iron from its hosts. The siderophore-dependent iron transport system was found to be crucial for the pathogenesis of this bacterium. Siderophores are low-molecular-weight metabolites with a high affinity for Fe(3+). These compounds are produced in the surrounding environment to chelate iron. The siderophore secreted by Y. pestis is yersiniabactin (Ybt). Another metallophore produced by this bacterium, yersinopine, is of the opine type and shows similarities with both staphylopine and pseudopaline produced by Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, respectively. This paper sheds light on the most important aspects of the two Y. pestis metallophores as well as aerobactin a siderophore no longer secreted by this bacterium due to frameshift mutation in its genome.