Iron-sulfur clusters are widely represented in most organisms, but the mechanism of their formation is not fully understood. Of the two main proteins involved in cluster formation, NifS/IscS and NifU/IscU, only the former has been well studied from a structural point of view. Here we report an extensive structural characterization of Escherichia coli IscU. We show by a variety of physico-chemical techniques that E. coli IscU construct can be expressed to high purity as a monomeric protein, characterized by an αβ fold with high α-helix content. The high melting temperature and the reversibility of the thermal unfolding curve (as measured by CD spectroscopy) hint at a well ordered stable fold. The excellent dispersion of cross peaks in the 1H-15N correlation spectrum is consistent with these observations. Monomeric E. coli IscU is able to provide a scaffold for Iron-sulfur cluster assembly, but has no direct interaction with either Fe(II) or Fe(III) ions, suggesting the need of further partners to achieve a stable interaction.

Bacterial IscU is a well folded and functional single domain protein

ADINOLFI, Salvatore;RIZZO, FRANCESCA;PASTORE, ANNALISA;
2004-01-01

Abstract

Iron-sulfur clusters are widely represented in most organisms, but the mechanism of their formation is not fully understood. Of the two main proteins involved in cluster formation, NifS/IscS and NifU/IscU, only the former has been well studied from a structural point of view. Here we report an extensive structural characterization of Escherichia coli IscU. We show by a variety of physico-chemical techniques that E. coli IscU construct can be expressed to high purity as a monomeric protein, characterized by an αβ fold with high α-helix content. The high melting temperature and the reversibility of the thermal unfolding curve (as measured by CD spectroscopy) hint at a well ordered stable fold. The excellent dispersion of cross peaks in the 1H-15N correlation spectrum is consistent with these observations. Monomeric E. coli IscU is able to provide a scaffold for Iron-sulfur cluster assembly, but has no direct interaction with either Fe(II) or Fe(III) ions, suggesting the need of further partners to achieve a stable interaction.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/4683114
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