Aerobactin-Mediated Iron Acquisition Enhances Biofilm Formation, Oxidative Stress Resistance, and Virulence of .

Aerobactin is a citrate-hydroxamate siderophore that is critical for the virulence of pathogenic enteric bacteria. However, although the aerobactin-producing - operon is distributed widely in the genomes of species, none of the pathogenic spp. was found to produce aerobactin. Here, we showed that the - operon in the food-borne enteric pathogen YPIII is a functional siderophore system involved in iron acquisition. The expression of the operon was found to be directly repressed by the ferric uptake regulator (Fur) in an iron concentration-dependent manner. In addition, we demonstrated that the aerobactin-mediated iron acquisition contributes to bacterial growth under iron-limited conditions. Moreover, we provided evidence that aerobactin plays important roles in biofilm formation, resistance to oxidative stress, ROS removal, and virulence of . Overall, our study not only uncovered a novel strategy of iron acquisition in but also highlighted the importance of aerobactin in the pathogenesis of .