AUTHOR=Menendez-Gil Pilar , Catalan-Moreno Arancha , Caballero Carlos J. , Toledo-Arana Alejandro 

TITLE=Staphylococcus aureus ftnA 3’-Untranslated Region Modulates Ferritin Production Facilitating Growth Under Iron Starvation Conditions

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.838042

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.838042

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Iron acquisition and modulation of its intracellular concentration are critical for the development of all living organisms. So far, several proteins have been described to be involved in iron homeostasis. Among them, ferritins act as the major iron storage proteins, sequestering internalized iron and modulating its concentration inside bacterial cells. We previously described that the deletion of the 3’-untranslated region (3’UTR) of the <italic>ftnA</italic> gene, which codes for ferritin in <italic>Staphylococcus aureus</italic>, increased the <italic>ftnA</italic> mRNA and ferritin levels. Here, we show that the ferritin levels are affected by RNase III and PNPase, which target the <italic>ftnA</italic> 3’UTR. Rifampicin mRNA stability experiments revealed that the half-life of the <italic>ftnA</italic> mRNA is affected by both RNase III and the <italic>ftnA</italic> 3’UTR. A transcriptional fusion of the <italic>ftnA</italic> 3’UTR to the <italic>gfp</italic> reporter gene decreased green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression, indicating that the <italic>ftnA</italic> 3’UTR could work as an independent module. Additionally, a chromosomal deletion of the <italic>ftnA</italic> 3’UTR impaired <italic>S. aureus</italic> growth under conditions of iron starvation. Overall, this work highlights the biological relevance of the <italic>ftnA</italic> 3’UTR for iron homeostasis in <italic>S. aureus</italic>.</p>