Springer, BioMetals, 6(21), p. 693-703, 2008
DOI: 10.1007/s10534-008-9154-7
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Iron-sulfur clusters are one of the most ubiquitous redox centers in biology. Ironically, iron-sulfur clusters are highly sensitive to reactive oxygen species. Disruption of iron-sulfur clusters will not only change the activity of proteins that host iron-sulfur clusters, the iron released from the disrupted iron-sulfur clusters will further promote the production of deleterious hydroxyl free radicals via the Fenton reaction. Here, we report that ferritin A (FtnA), a major iron-storage protein in Escherichia coli, is able to scavenge the iron released from the disrupted iron-sulfur clusters and alleviates the production of hydroxyl free radicals. Furthermore, we find that the iron stored in ferritin A can be retrieved by an iron chaperon IscA for the re-assembly of the iron-sulfur cluster in a proposed scaffold IscU in the presence of the thioredoxin reductase system which emulates normal intracellular redox potential. The results suggest that E. coli ferritin A may act as an iron buffer to sequester the iron released from the disrupted iron-sulfur clusters under oxidative stress conditions and to facilitate the re-assembly of the disrupted iron-sulfur clusters under normal physiological conditions.