The ferrichrome-iron receptor of Escherichia coli K-12 is FhuA (Me, 78,992), the first component of an energy-dependent, high-affinity iron uptake pathway. FhuA is also the cognate receptor for bacteriophages T5, Ti, +80, and UC-1, for colicin M and microcin 25, and for albomycin. To probe the topological organization of FhuA which enables recognition of these different ligands, we generated a library of 16 Under conditions of iron deprivation, many gram-negative bacteria derepress the expression of a class of surface receptors called iron-regulated outer membrane proteins. The function of these proteins is to bind specific siderophores and to initiate their internalization, thereby enabling the cell to satisfy its iron requirement (5). Siderophores have widely differing structures, but all share a high affinity for the ferric ion (24). Assimilation of the ferric siderophore requires a specific receptor as well as other periplasmic and cytoplasmic membrane proteins, including TonB (28). A cytoplasmic membrane protein complex including TonB, ExbB, and ExbD is thought to couple the electrochemical potential of the cytoplasmic membrane to the outer membrane siderophore receptor, a step which allows subsequent translocation of the bound ligand into the periplasm (37,38 proteins, including FepA (26), FhuA (23), FoxA (1), and LamB (9). These models incorporate some structural elements in common: amphiphilic sequences constitute antiparallel 3 sheets which traverse the outer membrane; intervening sequences are thought to constitute loops that are exposed at the cell surface or in the periplasm.Predictions of outer membrane protein topology can be evaluated with a number of tools, including monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) (26,34,39), insertion and deletion mutagenesis (4, 6, 7, 23), and reporter protein fusions (27)