Antimicrobial zinc toxicity in Mϕs: ZnT1 pays the toll.

Transition metals, including zinc, are essential to all living organisms. They are also toxic in high amounts, and their intracellular concentration must be tightly regulated. In this edition of JLB, Stocks et al. report that the zinc transporter, ZnT1 (SLC30A1) is induced by TLR4 activation in Mϕs, in which it contributes to zinc accumulation in Escherichia coli-containing phagosomes, resulting in increased bacterial clearance.