Abstract
Iron–sulfur (Fe–S) clusters are ancient and ubiquitous cofactors and are involved in many important biological processes. Unlike the non-photosynthetic bacteria, cyanobacteria have developed the sulfur utilization factor (SUF) mechanism as their main assembly pathway for Fe–S clusters, supplemented by the iron–sulfur cluster and nitrogen-fixing mechanisms. The SUF system consists of cysteine desulfurase SufS, SufE that can enhance SufS activity, SufBC2D scaffold complex, carrier protein SufA, and regulatory repressor SufR. The S source for the Fe–S cluster assembly mainly originates from L-cysteine, but the Fe donor remains elusive. This minireview mainly focuses on the biogenesis pathway of the Fe–S clusters in cyanobacteria and its relationship with iron homeostasis. Future challenges of studying Fe–S clusters in cyanobacteria are also discussed.
Highlights
As cofactors of proteins, iron–sulfur (Fe–S) clusters participate in many important physiological processes, including respiration, photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation, amino acid and purine metabolism, RNA modification, and DNA replication, as well as repair and regulation of gene expression (Beinert et al, 1997; Johnson et al, 2005; Lill, 2009; Balk and Pilon, 2011; Maio and Rouault, 2015)
The atmosphere started to become oxidized by oxygenic photosynthesis after the proliferation of cyanobacteria between 3.2 and 2.4 billion years ago (Brocks et al, 1999) and severely limited the assembly of Fe–S clusters (Chapman and Schopf, 1983)
Cyanobacteria and higher plants retain the components of sulfur utilization factor (SUF) system in E. coli and choose this system as their major Fe– S cluster assembly pathways (Outten, 2015)
Summary
Reviewed by: Franklin Wayne Outten, University of South Carolina, United States Huangen Ding, Louisiana State University, United States. Iron–sulfur (Fe–S) clusters are ancient and ubiquitous cofactors and are involved in many important biological processes. Unlike the non-photosynthetic bacteria, cyanobacteria have developed the sulfur utilization factor (SUF) mechanism as their main assembly pathway for Fe–S clusters, supplemented by the iron–sulfur cluster and nitrogen-fixing mechanisms. The SUF system consists of cysteine desulfurase SufS, SufE that can enhance SufS activity, SufBC2D scaffold complex, carrier protein SufA, and regulatory repressor SufR. The S source for the Fe–S cluster assembly mainly originates from L-cysteine, but the Fe donor remains elusive. This minireview mainly focuses on the biogenesis pathway of the Fe–S clusters in cyanobacteria and its relationship with iron homeostasis. Future challenges of studying Fe–S clusters in cyanobacteria are discussed
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