Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 292, Issue 5526, Pages 2488-2492Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1060331
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Funding
- NIDDK NIH HHS [DK52627] Funding Source: Medline
- NIGMS NIH HHS [R01 GM038784, T32 GM08382, R01 GM38784] Funding Source: Medline
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Intracellular zinc is thought to be available in a cytosolic pool of free or Loosely bound Zn(II) ions in the micromolar to picomolar range. To test this, we determined the mechanism of zinc sensors that control metal uptake or export in Escherichia coli and calibrated their response against the thermodynamically defined free line concentration. Whereas the cellular line quota is millimolar, free Zn(II) concentrations that trigger transcription of zinc uptake or efflux machinery are femtomolar, or six orders of magnitude Less than one atom per cell. This is not consistent with a cytosolic pool of free Zn(II) and suggests an extraordinary intracellular zinc-binding capacity. Thus, cells exert tight control over cytosolic metal concentrations, even for relatively Low-toxicity metals such as zinc.
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