Binding of wild-type and mutant Cma proteins to the FhuA receptor in a competition assay with albomycin. Exponentially growing E. coli Mo3 fkpA40 in LB medium (▪) and in LB medium containing 1 μg ml−1 albomycin (□), 0.1 mg ml−1 wild-type Cma (▾), wild-type Cma and albomycin (▿), Cma(E59A) (•), Cma(E59A) and albomycin (○), CmaΔ(K270 R271) (▴), CmaΔ(K270 R271) and albomycin (▵), Cma(Δ38-46) (⧫), and Cma(Δ38-46) and albomycin (⋄). Growth was monitored spectrophotometrically. The arrows indicate the addition of the Cma samples and albomycin. The figure shows an example of reproducibly obtained data.