Chloroplast iron-sulfur cluster protein maturation requires the essential cysteine desulfurase CpNifS.

ABSTRACT: NifS-like proteins provide the sulfur (S) for the formation of iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters, an ancient and essential type of cofactor found in all three domains of life. Plants are known to contain two distinct NifS-like proteins, localized in the mitochondria (MtNifS) and the chloroplast (CpNifS). In the chloroplast, five different Fe-S cluster types are required in various proteins. These plastid Fe-S proteins are involved in a variety of biochemical pathways including photosynthetic electron transport and nitrogen and sulfur assimilation. In vitro, the chloroplastic cysteine desulfurase CpNifS can release elemental sulfur from cysteine for Fe-S cluster biogenesis in ferredoxin. However, because of the lack of a suitable mutant allele, the role of CpNifS has not been studied thus far in

SUBMITTER: Van Hoewyk D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1838476 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature