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Understanding Commensal Bacteria Influence Host Heme Metabolism
Author(s) -
DuBois Jennifer Lynn,
Coe Genevieve,
Celis Arianna I.,
Walk Seth T.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.484.3
Subject(s) - heme , host (biology) , biology , transporter , microbiome , bacteria , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , gene , genetics , enzyme
Heme serves as a critical source of iron for human pathogens that can access O 2 and the abundant heme stores in red blood cells. The lack of a well‐defined cellular heme transporter in the intestinal lumen cells suggests a possible role for microbes in metabolizing the tetrapyrrole on behalf of themselves and the host. A fully anaerobic pathway for heme breakdown ( chuA chuW chuS ) was recently discovered in E. coli , which could render heme iron bioavailable to the host, or minimize the toxic or inflammatory effects of heme for the microbiome and host, respectively. We tested these hypotheses using a chu‐containing commensal E. coli strain an isogenic DchuW knock out, and mice with defined microbiota. We provide evidence that the microbiome may serve as a missing link in rendering heme iron bioavailable to animal hosts. Support or Funding Information This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grant R21DK114607. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .