# Novel and essential metallophores from multidrug resistant bacterial pathogens

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SAN ANTONIO · 2020 · $287,500

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Opine metallophores are recently identified novel metal acquisition small molecules made by diverse bacterial
pathogens: Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Yersinia pestis. The operons for
biosynthesis, export and re-uptake have only been reported in the last two years, and yet these systems have
already been shown to be linked to pathogenesis in mouse models for bacteremia, lung infections and burn
wound infections. The biosynthesis of these metallophores is especially intriguing, because they are not made
by the well-studied nonribosomal peptide synthetases or polyketide synthases. Instead, these pathogens have
evolved a biosynthetic system that is dependent on a nicotianamine synthase and an opine dehydrogenase.
Nicotianamine synthases (NAS) have been primarily studied in plants, and iteratively join the aminobutyrate
moieties of S-adenosylmethionine. Opine dehydrogenases (ODH) are made by plant pathogens and molluscs,
and generate linkages between an amino acid and an α-keto acid. Neither class of enzymes in well-studied, so
we propose here fill to this gap-in-knowledge, providing a structural biology and mechanistic enzymology
characterization of these enzymes. We will also provide the first structural characterization of the metallophores
themselves. This basic science research will lay the necessary foundation for future novel antimicrobial drug
design efforts.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10211388
- **Project number:** 7R01GM127655-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SAN ANTONIO
- **Principal Investigator:** AUDREY L LAMB
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $287,500
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10211388

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10211388, Novel and essential metallophores from multidrug resistant bacterial pathogens (7R01GM127655-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10211388. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*