The cysteine desulfurase AtNFS1 is involved in Fe-S cluster assembly and iron metabolism

ARMAS, A.; TUROWSKI, V.; BUSI, M. V.; PAGANI M.A.; DIEGO FABIAN GOMEZ CASATI

Córdoba

Congreso; LII Reunión de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SAIB); 2016

SAIB

The Arabidopsis thaliana cysteinedesulfurase AtNfs1 has an essential role in cellular Fe-S cluster assembly. Ithas been reported a relationship between this protein and iron metabolism. Inorder to further understand this, we have studied the phenotype of two mutantlines (KD501 and KD681) and two overexpressing lines (AtNFS-1 and -2) of AtNfs1in Arabidopsis thaliana. The mutantlines show a decrease in biomass corresponding to a smaller foliar area andmain root length while overexpressing lines show an increase in theseparameters compared to wild type. No change has been measured on chlorophyllcontent in these lines. An increase in the amount of total iron has been observedin the overexpressing lines compared to wild type and mutant lines but nosignificant change in total iron has been detected between mutant and wild typelines. Thus, we analyzed the expression levels of iron metabolism related genes.Results showed an increase of the expression of several genes related to ironhomeostasis. Taken together, our results suggest that AtNfs1 plays a key rolenot only in cellular Fe-S cluster assembly but also in iron uptake andassimilation.