Iron-sulfur clusters types

Iron Sulfur Compounds. Many molecular compounds (18—20) are known in which iron is tetrahedraHy coordinated by a combination of thiolate and sulfide donors. Of the 10 or more stmcturaHy characterized classes of Fe—S compounds, the four shown in Figure 1 are known to occur in proteins. The mononuclear iron site REPLACE occurs in the one-iron bacterial electron-transfer protein mbredoxin. The [2Fe—2S] (10) and [4Fe—4S] (12) cubane stmctures are found in the 2-, 4-, and 8-iron ferredoxins, which are also electron-transfer proteins. The [3Fe—4S] voided cubane stmcture (11) has been found in some ferredoxins and in the inactive form of aconitase, the enzyme which catalyzes the stereospecific hydration—rehydration of citrate to isocitrate in the Krebs cycle. In addition, enzymes are known that contain either other types of iron sulfur clusters or iron sulfur clusters that include other metals. Examples include nitrogenase, which reduces N2 to NH at a MoFe Sg homocitrate cluster carbon monoxide dehydrogenase, which assembles acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) at a FeNiS site and hydrogenases, which catalyze the reversible reduction of protons to hydrogen gas. 

Nonrepetitive but well-defined structures of this type form many important features of enzyme active sites. In some cases, a particular arrangement of coil structure providing a specific type of functional site recurs in several functionally related proteins. The peptide loop that binds iron-sulfur clusters in both ferredoxin and high potential iron protein is one example. Another is the central loop portion of the E—F hand structure that binds a calcium ion in several calcium-binding proteins, including calmodulin, carp parvalbumin, troponin C, and the intestinal calcium-binding protein. This loop, shown in Figure 6.26, connects two short a-helices. The calcium ion nestles into the pocket formed by this structure. 

During the 1960s, research on proteins containing iron—sulfur clusters was closely related to the field of photosynthesis. Whereas the first ferredoxin, a 2[4Fe-4S] protein, was obtained in 1962 from the nonphotosynthetic bacterium Clostridium pasteurianum (1), in the same year, a plant-type [2Fe-2S] ferredoxin was isolated from spinach chloroplasts (2). Despite the fact that members of this latter class of protein have been reported for eubacteria and even archaebacteria (for a review, see Ref. (3)), the name plant-type ferredoxin is often used to denote this family of iron—sulfur proteins. The two decades... 

Cluster Fx was also identified via its EPR spectral features in the RCI photosystem from green sulfur bacteria 31, 32) and the cluster binding motif was subsequently found in the gene sequence 34 ) of the (single) subunit of the homodimeric reaction center core (for a review, see 54, 55)). Whereas the same sequence motif is present in the RCI from heliobacteria (50), no EPR evidence for the presence of an iron-sulfur cluster related to Fx has been obtained. There are, however, indications from time-resolved optical spectroscopy for the involvement of an Fx-type center in electron transfer through the heliobacterial RC 56). 

Fig. 1. Iron-sulfur clusters basic building blocks. In most cases the iron is tetrahe-drally coordinated by sulfur from cysteinyl residues (and labile sulfur). Variability on coordination is allowed (see text). A, Rubredoxin type FeS4 (simplest cluster, no labile sulfur) B, plant-type ferredoxin [2Fe-2S] C, bacterial ferredoxin [3Fe-4S] D, bacterial ferredoxin and HiPIP [4Fe-4S] E, novel cluster [4Fe-2S, 20] ( hybrid cluster ).

This key enzyme of the dissimilatory sulfate reduction was isolated from all Desulfovibrio strains studied until now 135), and from some sulfur oxidizing bacteria and thermophilic Archaea 136, 137). The enzymes isolated from sulfate-reducing bacteria contain two [4Fe-4S] clusters and a flavin group (FAD) as demonstrated by visible, EPR, and Mossbauer spectroscopies. With a total molecular mass ranging from 150 to 220 kDa, APS reductases have a subunit composition of the type 012)32 or 02)3. The subunit molecular mass is approximately 70 and 20 kDa for the a and )3 subunits, respectively. Amino-acid sequence data suggest that both iron-sulfur clusters are located in the (3 subunit... 

Trinuclear Cuboidal and Heterometallic Cubane-Type Iron-Sulfur Clusters New Structural and Reacticity Themes in Chemistry and Biology R. H. Holm... 

The third type of hydrogenases from some methanogenic archea, also referred to as iron-sulfur-cluster-free hydrogenase, oxHmd, has attracted interest in bioinorganic... 

Recently Jensen and co-workers have determined the structure of a clostridial-type ferredoxin obtained from Micrococcus aerogenes (47). One of the two apparently identical iron-sulfur clusters is illustrated in Fig. 2. The structure is compatible with a model with iron and labile sulfide at alternate comers of a cube. This accounts for the equivalence of these moieties in the protein. Another 8-iron-8 labile sulfur ferredoxin, from Clostridium acidiurici, similarly contains two independent iron-sulfur clusters per molecule (48). Strahs and Kraut (49) had earlier discovered... 

Tetranuclear iron-sulfur clusters of the type [Fe4S4(SR)4]2, where R = CH2C6H5 and C6H5, were found138 to catalyze the reduction of C02 in DMF solutions. Controlled-potential electrolyses were carried out in a C02-saturated 0.1 M tetrabutylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TBAT)-DMF solution at a mercury pool cathode. In the absence of a catalyst, C02 was substantially reduced only at potentials more negative than -2.4 V versus SCE, while in the presence of a cluster, the reduction took place at around -1.7 V thus, potential shift of ca. 0.7 V was achieved. The products were analyzed by means of gas chromatography and isotachophoresis. Without a catalyst, oxalate was the main product, and addition of small amounts of water to the DMF solution favored formate production, whereas in the presence of the catalyst, formate was produced predominantly even in a dry DMF solution. This result was interpreted in terms of indirect reduction of C02, proceeding by electron transfer from the reduced cluster to C02 in the bulk... 

Core extrusion studies—removal of the iron-sulfur cluster intact from the enzyme surroundings—have been carried out and the iron-cluster types in proteins identified through the process shown in equation 6.10.18 DMS0/H20 is the protein unfolding solvent for this process. By this method, Fe-protein and MoFe-protein metal-sulfur clusters have been removed from the holoenzyme for separate analysis by many instrumental techniques. 

Zirngibl, C., van Dongen, W., Schworer, B., von Biinau, R., Richter, M., Klein, A., Thauer, R. K. (1992) H2-forming methylenetetrahydromethanopterin dehydrogenase, a novel type of hydrogenase with iron-sulfur clusters in methanogenic archaea. Eur. J. Biochem. 208, 511-20. 

Iron-sulfur clusters constitute one of the most ancient, ubiquitous, and structurally and functionally diverse classes of biological prosthetic groups. For reviews see Cammack (1992), Johnson (1994, 1998), Beinert et al. (1997), Beinert and Kiley (1999), and Beinert (2000). Indeed there are now known to be in excess of 120 distinct types of Fe-S cluster-containing enzymes and proteins, distributed over all three kingdoms of life, and the list is growing rapidly. 

Tachezy J, Sanchez LB, Muller M. 2001. Mitochondrial type iron-sulfur cluster assembly in the amitochondriate eukaryotes Trichomonas vaginalis and Giardia intestinalis, as indicated by the phylogeny of IscS. Mol Biol Evo 18 1919-28. 

The complexity of the low temperature MCD spectra of the oxidized and reduced trinuclear cluster shows the multiplicity of the predominantly S — Fe charge transfer transitions that contribute to the absorption envelope. While MCD spectroscopy provides a method of resolving the electronic transitions, assignment cannot be attempted without detailed knowledge of the electronic structure. However, the complexity of the low temperature MCD spectra is useful in that it furnishes a discriminating method for determining the type and redox state of protein bound iron-sulfur clusters. Each well characterized type of iron-sulfur cluster, i.e. [2Fe-2S], [3Fe-4S], and [4Fe-4S], has been shown to have a characteristic low temperature MCD spectrum in each paramagnetic redox state (1)... 

Iron-sulfur clusters (7) occur as prosthetic groups in oxidoreductases, but they are also found in lyases—e.g., aconitase (see p. 136) and other enzymes. Iron-sulfur clusters consist of 2-4 iron ions that are coordinated with cysteine residues of the protein (-SR) and with anorganic sulfide ions (S). Structures of this type are only stable in the interior of proteins. Depending on the number of iron and sulfide ions, distinctions are made between [Fe2S2], [Fe3S4], and [Fe4S4] clusters. These structures are particularly numerous in the respiratory chain (see p. 140), and they are found in all complexes except complex IV. 

A brief historical note on the structure of the iron-sulfur clusters in ferredoxins is relevant. After the first analytical results revealed the presence of (nearly) equimolar iron and acid-labile sulfur, it was clear that the metal center in ferredoxins did not resemble any previously characterized cofactor type. The early proposals for the Fe S center structure were based on a linear chain of iron atoms coordinated by bridging cysteines and inorganic sulfur (Blomstrom et al., 1964 Rabino-witz, 1971). While the later crystallographic analyses of HiPIP, PaFd, and model compounds (Herskovitz et al., 1972) demonstrated the cubane-type structure of the 4Fe 4S cluster, the original proposals have turned out to be somewhat prophetic. Linear chains of sulfide-linked irons are observed in 2Fe 2S ferredoxins and in the high-pH form of aconitase. Cysteines linked to several metal atoms are present in metallothionein. The chemistry of iron-sulfur clusters is rich and varied, and undoubtedly many other surprises await in the future. 

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