Cross-Talk Between Nickel and Other Metals in Microbial Systems

Nickel is one of several transition metal cations that have an important function in bacterial cells. Owing to similar sizes and chemical properties, all transition metal cations interact with each other’s metabolism in biological systems. The task of a cell is to acquire sufficient nickel ions from its environment and to allocate this metal ion efficiently to nickel-dependent proteins. This must be done without causing too much collateral damage due to the potential negative effects of nickel ions on the metabolism of other transition metal cations, and vice versa. This chapter describes how this can be accomplished from the point of view of the bacterial cell.