Abiotic chelators and iron acquisition in living organisms: From molecular iron(III) chelators to self-assembled nanostructures

The story of the highly selective iron(III) chelating agent O-TRENSOX is presented. The promising (and somewhat unexpected in regard to partition coefficients) properties of this molecule induced the development of several tools for iron metabolism studies. The tuning of the properties of O-TRENSOX by chemical modifications of the parent molecules is also developed. Finally, fascinating perspectives are opened by amphiphilic derivatives which mimic marine siderophores from phytoplankton. The self-assembling properties of amphiphilic abiotic chelators and their iron derivatives, as well as the first results concerning iron nutrition of Erwinia chrysanthemi and some mutants, have been studied.