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0:00
Hello, my name is Roland Lill,
I'm a Professor of Cell Biology at
the Institute of Zytobiologie at the Philipps- Universitat of Marburg, in Germany.
In my lecture, I will try to give you an overview on what we learned over
the past two decades on the Biogenesis of Cellular Iron-Sulfur Proteins in Eukaryotes.
0:23
In part one of my lecture,
I will first provide you with a general overview on
the structure and function of Iron-Sulfur clusters and proteins in nature.
Then I will briefly introduce you into
the biochemical and spectroscopic methods of how
we can analyze Iron-Sulfur proteins and their biogenesis.
Next, I will concentrate on what we know about
the mechanisms of the Iron-Sulfur protein assembly in mitochondria.
This is then followed by a brief overview of
the so-called mitochondrial Iron-Sulfur diseases.
And finally, I will discuss a few open questions in this exciting research field.
In part two, I will cover the role of mitochondrion and assembly.
I will talk on cytosolic and nuclear Iron-Sulfur proteins,
the mechanisms of this process and about a number of
essential cellular processes intimately connected
to cytosolic and nuclear Iron-Sulfur protein biogenesis.
1:28
Iron-Sulfur clusters are among the oldest and most simple protein co-factors we know.
The simplest form of Iron-Sulfur clusters are
the rhombic 2Fe-2S clusters on the left,
and the cubic 4Fe-4S cluster on the right.
Together, they comprise more than 90% of the clusters we know, in the living world.
The clusters are usually coordinated by
the iron-ions to cysteine residues of the polypeptide chain.
However, we know other forms of Iron-Sulfur clusters such
as the 3Fe-4S or 4Fe-3S clusters,
where simply a 4Fe-4S cluster has lost either an iron or a sulfur-iron respectively,
for instance, in the latter case in oxygen resistant hydrogenase.
More complex Iron-Sulfur clusters are present for instance in the well
studied bacterial protein nitrogenase, which exists nitrogen.
Its P-cluster on the left is comprised of two 4Fe-4S clusters fused via a sulfur atom.
In the M or molybdenum cluster on the right,
one of the iron ions is replaced by another metal,
in this case molybdenum but can also be
vanadium giving rise to a rather complex cluster structure.