The impact of depletion of iron or manganese on the transcriptome of Streptococcus mutans

Iron and manganese are micronutrientients that serve as important co-factors necessary for enzymatic function. In the host environment, access to metals can be highy restricted. Here, we wanted to identify the transcriptomic response when S. mutans UA159 is grown in media depleted of iron, manganese, or both. Streptococcus mutans UA159 was grown in the chemically defined medium FMC, either under metal replete conditions (control), or with iron, manganese, or both metals omitted from the recipe. Cultures were grown to mid-exponential phase (OD600 = 0.4) and harvested for transcriptional profiling