Brucella abortus is a Gram-negative bacterium in the family Brucellaceae and is one of the causative agents of brucellosis. The rod-shaped pathogen is classified under the domain Bacteria. The prokaryotic B. abortus is non-spore-forming, non-motile and aerobic. Brucella abortus enters phagocytes that invade human and animal innate defenses which in turn, cause chronic disease in the host. The liver and spleen are the mainly affected areas of the body. Farm workers and veterinarians are the highest risk individuals for acquiring the disease due to their close proximity to the animals. Swine, goats, sheep, and cattle are a few of the reservoirs for the disease.
Iron availability is essential for Brucella productive infections. Iron uptake is ensured by bacterioferritin, an oligomeric protein containing both a binuclear iron centre and haem b. Bacterioferritin forms a roughly spherical, hollow shell from 24 identical subunits, incorporating 12 haem groups. Iron is stored as a hydrated ferric oxide mineral in its central cavity (about 80 Å diameter). The overall complex has cubic (432) symmetry. Each subunit includes a binuclear metalbinding site (the diiron site) linking together the four major helices of the subunit, which has been identified as the ferroxidase active site. Here you can see a recent crystal structure of bacterioferritin from Brucella abortus (PDB code: 8SQT)

#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #brucella ... #infection... #iron ... #uptake ... #polymer ... #bacterioferritin ... #haem ... #xray

Structure rendered with @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint