Siderophore-mediated iron handling is crucial for the virulence of Aspergillus fumigatus. Here we identified a new component of its siderophore metabolism, termed SidJ, which is encoded by AFUA_3G03390. The encoding gene is localized in a siderophore biosynthetic gene cluster that is conserved in a variety of fungi. During iron starvation, SidJ deficiency resulted in decreased growth and increased intracellular accumulation of hydrolysis products of the siderophore fusarinine C. The implied role in siderophore hydrolysis is consistent with a putative esterase domain in SidJ, which now represents the first functionally characterized member of the DUF1749 (domain of unknown function) protein family, with members found exclusively in fungi and plants.
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