Amphiphilic and α-hydroxy acid-containing siderophores from marine bacteria

GEOC 10

Alison Butler, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9510
Iron is an essential micronutrient for bacterial growth, even in open ocean waters where the iron concentration is extremely low (0.02 - 1 nM) over much of the world’s oceans. To acquire iron many oceanic bacteria secrete siderophores, which are low molecular weight iron(III)-binding compounds. The majority of the oceanic siderophores we have isolated and structurally characterized contain an α-hydroxy acid moiety, which when coordinated to Fe(III) is photoreactive or contain a fatty acid tail, which confers interesting amphiphilic properties to these compounds. Some of the marine siderophores contain both an α-hydroxy acid moiety and a fatty acid tail. The reactivity and possible importance of the α-hydroxy acid moiety and the amphiphilic properties of these siderophores will be discussed in this presentation.