Boston Hospitality Review: Winter 2016

The Evolution of Dual-Branded Hotels: How the Marriott/Starwood Acquisition Enhances Opportunities for Developers By Daniel Lesser, Jonathan Jaeger, & Jeremy Gilston of LW Hospitality Advisors® -- The Making of Airbnb by Morgan Brown -- Hotel E-Commerce: Navigating the Complex Hospitality Digital Marketing Landscape by Leora Halpern Lanz -- Being Lord Grantham: Aristocratic Brand Heritage and the Cunard Transatlantic Crossing by Bradford Hudson -- Hospitality Management: Learning, Doing, Knowing by Christopher Muller -- Disruption from the Inside-Out: Innovation in the Restaurant Industry By Makaela Reink

Siderophore-Mediated Zinc Acquisition Enhances Enterobacterial Colonization of the Inflamed Gut

Zinc is an essential cofactor for bacterial metabolism, and many Enterobacteriaceae express the zinc transporters ZnuABC and ZupT to acquire this metal in the host. However, the probiotic bacterium Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (or “Nissle”) exhibits appreciable growth in zinc-limited media even when these transporters are deleted. Here, we show that Nissle utilizes the siderophore yersiniabactin as a zincophore, enabling Nissle to grow in zinc-limited media, to tolerate calprotectin-mediated zinc sequestration, and to thrive in the inflamed gut. We also show that yersiniabactin’s affinity for iron or zinc changes in a pH-dependent manner, with increased relative zinc binding as the pH increases. Thus, our results indicate that siderophore metal affinity can be influenced by the local environment and reveal a mechanism of zinc acquisition available to commensal and pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae