Metal ion transport in eukaryotic microorganisms: insights from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Metal ions such as iron, copper, manganese, and zinc are essential nutrients for all eukaryotic microorganisms. Therefore, these organisms possess efficient uptake mechanisms to obtain these nutrients from their extracellular environment. Metal ions must also be transported into intracellular organelles where they function as catalytic and structural cofactors for compartmentalized enzymes. Thus, intracellular transport mechanisms are also present. When present in high levels, metal ions can also be toxic, so their uptake and intracellular transport is tightly regulated at both transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels to limit metal ion overaccumulation and facilitate storage and sequestration. Remarkable molecular insight into these processes has come from recent studies of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This organism, which is the primary subject of this chapter, serves as a useful paradigm to understand metal ion metabolism in other eukaryotic microbes.