THE CYSTEINE DESULFURASE ATNFS1 IS INVOLVED IN FE-SCLUSTER ASSEMBLY AND IRON METABOLISM

BUSI, M.V.; ARMAS, A.M.; PAGANI, M.A.; TUROWSKI, V.R.; GOMEZ CASATI, D.F.

Cordoba

Congreso; 52th Annual Meeting Argentine Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; 2016

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

The Arabidopsis thaliana cysteine desulfurase AtNfs1 has anessential role in cellular Fe-Scluster assembly. It has beenreported a relationship between this protein and ironmetabolism. In order to further understand this, we have studiedthe phenotype of two mutant lines (KD501 and KD681) and twooverexpressing lines (AtNFS-1and -2)of AtNfs1 in Arabidopsis thaliana. The mutant lines show a decrease in biomasscorresponding to a smaller foliar area and main root lengthwhile overexpressing lines show an increase inthese parameters compared to wild type. No change has been measured on chlorophyll content in these lines. An increase inthe amount of total iron has been observed in theoverexpressing lines compared to wild type and mutant linesbut no significant change in total iron has been detected between mutant and wild type lines. Thus, we analyzed the expression levels of iron metabolism related genes. Resultsshowed an increase of the expression of several genes relatedto iron homeostasis. Taken together, our results suggest that AtNfs1 plays a key role not only in cellular Fe-Sclusterassembly but also in iron uptake and assimilation