In this communication, we examine the fate of iron during soft rot pathogenesis caused by Erwinia chrysanthemi on its host, Saintpaulia ionantha. The spread of soft rot caused by this enterobacterium was previously shown to depend on a functional genetic locus encoding a high-affinity iron assimilation system involving the catechol-type siderophore chrysobactin. Leaf intercellular fluid from healthy plants was analyzed with regard to the iron content and its availability for bacterial growth. It was compared to the fluid from diseased plants for the presence of strong iron ligands, using a new approach based on the iron-binding property of an ion-exchange resin. Further characterization allowed the identification of chrysobactin in diseased tissues, thus providing the first evidence for the external release of a microbial siderophore during pathogenesis. Competition for nutritional iron was studied through a plant-bacterial cell system, showing that iron incorporated into plant ferritin was considerably reduced in bacteria-treated suspension soybean cells, with the same effect induced by axenic leaf intercellular fluid from E. chrysanthemi-inoculated saintpaulia leaves or by chrysobactin. The purpose of this study was to analyze intercellular fluids from diseased saintpaulia plants (expected sites of nutritional iron competition) using the designed plant-bacterial cell system, revealing that such an iron deficit was induced by chrysobactin or intercellular fluids from inoculated leaves.