Nickel Metallomics: General Themes Guiding Nickel Homeostasis

The nickel metallome describes the distribution and speciation of nickel within the cells of organisms that utilize this element. This distribution is a consequence of nickel homeostasis, which includes import, storage, and export of nickel, incorporation into metalloenzymes, and the modulation of these and associated cellular systems through nickel-regulated transcription. In this chapter, we review the current knowledge of the most common nickel proteins in prokaryotic organisms with a focus on their coordination environments. Several underlying themes emerge upon review of these nickel systems, which illustrate the common principles applied by nature to shape the nickel metallome of the cell.