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Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Essential Metal Uptake in Gram-negative Bacteria: X-ray Fluorescence, Radioisotopes, and Cell Fractionation
Published on: February 1, 2018
Iron uptake is essential for Escherichia coli survival in drinking water
D Grandjean1, F Jorand, H Guilloteau
1Laboratoire de Chimie Physique et Microbiologie Pour l'Environnement (LCPME), rue de Vandoeuvre, Villers-lès-Nancy, France.
Aims:
The aim of this study was to elucidate if the need for iron for Escherichia coli to remain cultivable in a poorly nutritive medium such as the drinking water uses the iron transport system via the siderophores.
Methods And Results:
Environmental strains of E. coli (isolated from a drinking water network), referenced strains of E. coli and mutants deficient in TonB, an essential protein for iron(III) acquisition, were incubated for 3 weeks at 25 degrees C, in sterile drinking water with and without lepidocrocite (gamma-FeOOH), an insoluble iron corrosion product. Only cells with a functional iron transport system were able to survive throughout the weeks.
Conclusions:
The iron transport system via protein TonB plays an essential role on the survival of E. coli in a weakly nutritive medium like drinking water.
Significance And Impacts Of The Study:
Iron is a key parameter involved in coliform persistence in drinking water distribution systems.
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