Project Description
Iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters are present in many essential proteins. They are synthesized on scaffold protein complexes from iron and sulfur delivery systems and an electron source, before their transfer to acceptor proteins. The MASTIC project aims at delineating the molecular and structural mechanisms used by the chloroplastic SUF (sulfur mobilization) machinery from the model plant
Arabidopsis thaliana to synthesize and transfer Fe-S clusters. This machinery is considered as the most ancient Fe-S cluster biogenesis system and is also present and often essential in other eukaryotes and prokaryotes.
Goal The precise goals are to (i) decrypt the molecular and structural dynamics of the assembly complex (ii) identify and characterize the yet unknown iron- and electron-donating systems and other possible actors involved (iii) get insight into the Fe-S cluster transfer step. Considering the importance of Fe-S proteins for the chloroplastic metabolism, the project should provide major fundamental insights but also strategies for manipulating key pathways of biotechnological interest in plants. Moreover, molecular and structural principles acquired in the frame of this project will be likely extendable to all other protein machineries which are essential for Fe-S cluster assembly and trafficking in other cellular compartments and organisms. This includes bacterial pathogens which rely exclusively on the SUF system, but also the mitochondrial and cytosolic machineries present in human, the defect of which is often responsible for diseases.
RequirementsBiochemist required.
FundingANR-MASTIC.