Molecular Insight into TdfH-Mediated Zinc Piracy from Human Calprotectin by Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

, responsible for the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea, is an obligate human pathogen exquisitely adapted for survival on mucosal surfaces of humans. This host-pathogen relationship has resulted in evolution by of pathways that enable the use of host metalloproteins as required nutrients through the deployment of outer membrane-bound TonB-dependent transporters (TdTs). Recently, a TdT called TdfH was implicated in binding to calprotectin (CP) and in removal of the bound zinc (Zn), enabling gonococcal growth.