{"doi":"10.1073/pnas.2411833122","title":"Molecular basis of hemoglobin binding and heme removal in <i>Corynebacterium diphtheriae</i>","abstract":"To successfully mount infections, nearly all bacterial pathogens must acquire iron, a key metal cofactor that primarily resides within human hemoglobin. Corynebacterium diphtheriae causes the life-threatening respiratory disease diphtheria and captures hemoglobin for iron scavenging using the surface-displayed receptor HbpA. Here, we show using X-ray crystallography, NMR, and in situ binding measurements that C. diphtheriae selectively captures iron-loaded hemoglobin by partially ensconcing the heme molecules of its α subunits. Quantitative growth and heme release measurements are compatible with C. diphtheriae acquiring heme passively released from hemoglobin’s β subunits. We propose a model in which HbpA and heme-binding receptors collectively function on the C. diphtheriae surface to capture hemoglobin and its spontaneously released heme. Acquisition mechanisms that exploit the propensity of hemoglobin’s β subunit to release heme likely represent a common strategy used by bacterial pathogens to obtain iron during infections.","journal":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences","year":2024,"id":460671,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9583,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":778687,"name":"Lindsey R. Lyman","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":716525,"name":"Jordan Ford","orcid":"0000-0001-9501-551X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":955737,"name":"Jess Soule","orcid":"0000-0002-6159-4354","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1118397,"name":"Nicole A. Cheung","orcid":"0000-0002-1612-8952","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":576004,"name":"Andrew K. Goring","orcid":"0000-0003-4220-6472","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":429657,"name":"Ken Ellis‐Guardiola","orcid":"0000-0001-7966-1052","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":745538,"name":"Michael Collazo","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":273523,"name":"Duilio Cascio","orcid":"0000-0001-8285-754X","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366322,"name":"Hung Ton‐That","orcid":"0000-0003-1611-0469","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":778007,"name":"Michael P. Schmitt","orcid":"0000-0002-1516-7925","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366323,"name":"Robert Clubb","orcid":"0000-0001-5718-3985","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":731079,"name":"Brendan J. Mahoney","orcid":"0000-0003-4323-9276","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":94,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:04:07.925246Z","pmid":"39739808","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}