ArticleNature communications2017
Fine control of metal concentrations is necessary for cells to discern zinc from cobalt.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Metal-dependent regulated cell death: Molecular architecture and translational frontiers.iMeta · 2026Review
- Cobalt mitigates zinc-starvation effects in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2026Article
- Microbial metal physiology: ions to ecosystems.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2025Review
- Plant growth-promoting Burkholderia Sp. ZF6 enhances Brassica juncea survival in Cd/Zn contaminated soils via heavy metal tolerance genes.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2025Article
- Compatibility of intracellular binding: Evolutionary design principles for metal sensors.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Metals in Motion: Understanding Labile Metal Pools in Bacteria.Biochemistry · 2025Review
- A metal-trap tests and refines blueprints to engineer cellular protein metalation with different elements.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Two zinc ABC transporters contribute toFrontiers in plant science · 2025Article
- Bacterial Metallostasis: Metal Sensing, Metalloproteome Remodeling, and Metal Trafficking.Chemical reviews · 2024Review
- A 'through-DNA' mechanism for co-regulation of metal uptake and efflux.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Investigating MerR's Selectivity: The Crosstalk Between Cadmium and Copper Under Elevated Stress Conditions.Biomolecules · 2024Article
- Functional versatility of Zur in metal homeostasis, motility, biofilm formation, and stress resistance inMicrobiology spectrum · 2024Article
- Characterization of the Zinc Uptake Repressor (Zur) fromBiochemistry · 2024Article
- Moving metals: How microbes deliver metal cofactors to metalloproteins.Molecular microbiology · 2023Article
- The molecular mechanisms of the bacterial iron sensor IdeR.Biochemical Society transactions · 2023Article
- Protein metalation in a nutshell.FEBS letters · 2023Review
- Design of a Flexible, Zn-Selective Protein Scaffold that Displays Anti-Irving-Williams Behavior.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2022Article
- Reconsidering theACS bio & med chem Au · 2022Article
- Iron-responsive riboswitches.Current opinion in chemical biology · 2022Review
- Protein metalation in biology.Current opinion in chemical biology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Bacteria possess transcription factors whose DNA-binding activity is altered upon binding to specific metals, but metal binding is not specific in vitro. Here we show that tight regulation of buffered intracellular metal concentrations is a prerequisite for metal specificity of Zur, ZntR, RcnR and FrmR in Salmonella Typhimurium. In cells, at non-inhibitory elevated concentrations, Zur and ZntR, only respond to Zn(II), RcnR to cobalt and FrmR to formaldehyde. However, in vitro all these sensors bind non-cognate metals, which alters DNA binding. We model the responses of these sensors to intracellular-buffered concentrations of Co(II) and Zn(II) based upon determined abundances, metal affinities and DNA affinities of each apo- and metalated sensor. The cognate sensors are modelled to respond at the lowest concentrations of their cognate metal, explaining specificity. However, other sensors are modelled to respond at concentrations only slightly higher, and cobalt or Zn(II) shock triggers mal-responses that match these predictions. Thus, perfect metal specificity is fine-tuned to a narrow range of buffered intracellular metal concentrations.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.