Structural and functional characterization of a frataxin from a thermophilic organism
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Frataxins form an interesting family of iron‐binding proteins with an almost unique fold and are highly conserved from bacteria to primates. They have a pivotal role in iron–sulfur cluster biogenesis as regulators of the rates of cluster formation, as it is testified by the fact that frataxin absence is incompatible with life and reduced levels of the protein lead to the recessive neurodegenerative disease Friedreich's ataxia. Despite its importance, the structure of frataxin has been solved only from relatively few species. Here, we discuss the X‐ray structure of frataxin from the thermophilic fungus Chaetomium thermophilum, and the characterization of its interactions and dynamics in solution. We show that this eukaryotic frataxin has an unusual variation in the classical frataxin fold: the last helix is shorter than in other frataxins which results in a less symmetrical and compact structure. The stability of this protein is comparable to that of human frataxin, currently the most stable among the frataxin orthologues. We also characterized the iron‐binding mode of Ct frataxin and demonstrated that it binds it through a semiconserved negatively charged ridge on the first helix and beta‐strand. Moreover, this frataxin is also able to bind the bacterial ortholog of the desulfurase, which is central in iron–sulfur cluster synthesis, and act as its inhibitor.
Date Issued
2019-02-01
Date Acceptance
2019-01-10
Citation
FEBS Journal, 2019, 286 (3), pp.495-506
ISSN
0014-2956
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
495
End Page
506
Journal / Book Title
FEBS Journal
Volume
286
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Authors. The FEBS Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Federation of European Biochemical Societies. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000457745200006&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Friedreich's ataxia
iron-sulfur clusters
structural biology
IRON-SULFUR CLUSTERS
BACTERIAL FRATAXIN
INTERACTING PROTEIN
BACKBONE DYNAMICS
METAL-BINDING
BIOGENESIS
ACTIVATION
STABILITY
CYAY
NFS1
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-01-30