New and efficient method using Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants for identification of siderophores produced by microorganisms.

The separation and identification of siderophores produced by microorganisms is a time-consuming and an expensive procedure. We have developed a new and efficient method to identify siderophores using well-established Saccharomyces cerevisiae deletion mutants. The Deltafet3,arn strains fail to sustain growth, even when specific siderophores are supplied, and mutants are siderophore-specific: Deltafet3,arn2 for triacetylfusarinine C (TAFC), Deltafet3,arn1,sit1 for ferrichrome (FC), and Deltafet3,sit1 for ferrioxamine B (FOB). The culture broth of Fusarium graminearum was separated by HPLC, and each peak was subjected to a plate assay using S. cerevisiae mutants. We have found that each peak contained specific siderophores produced by F. graminearum, and these coincided with reference siderophores. This method is quite novel because nobody tried this method to identify the siderophores. Furthermore, this method will save time and cost in the identification of siderophores produced by microorganisms.