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To get access to iron, microorganisms produce and release into their environment small organic metal chelators called siderophores. In parallel, they produce siderophore–iron outer membrane transporters (also called TonB-Dependent Transporters or TBDT) embedded in the outer membrane; these proteins actively reabsorb the siderophore loaded with iron from the extracellular medium. This active uptake requires energy in the form of the proton motive force transferred from the inner membrane to the outer membrane transporter via the inner membrane TonB complex. Siderophores produced by microorganisms are structurally very diverse with molecular weights of 150 up to 2000 Da. Siderophore–iron uptake from the extracellular medium by TBDTs is a highly selective and sometimes even stereoselective process, with each siderophore having a specific TBDT. Unlike the siderophores, all TBDTs have similar …