Siderophore production and consumption in nasal bacterial species

Epidemiological studies of the nasal microbiome have revealed positive and negative correlations between non-pathogenic species and Staphylococcus aureus, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. The environment of the nasal cavities is iron-limited and bacteria are known to produce iron scavenging siderophores to overcome this limitation. We characterized how crucial siderophore acquisition is S. aureus nasal colonization and screened nasal bacterial strains of from various genera for their capacity to produce siderophores as well as to consume the siderophores produced by S. aureus.