Ferredoxin from Azotobacter chroococcum has been studied by low-temperature magnetic-circular-dichroism and electron-paramagnetic-resonance spectroscopy. When aerobically isolated ferredoxin contains a [3Fe-4S] and [4Fe-4S] cluster. Anaerobic treatment with dithionite in the presence of ethanediol reduces the [3Fe-4S] cluster to give two spectroscopically distinct forms RI and RII which are rev...

Although the NO (nitric oxide)-mediated modification of iron-sulfur proteins has been well-documented in bacteria and mammalian cells, specific reactivity of NO with iron-sulfur proteins still remains elusive. In the present study, we report the first kinetic characterization of the reaction between NO and iron-sulfur clusters in protein using the Escherichia coli IlvD (dihydroxyacid dehydratas...

Pyruvate formate-lyase activating enzyme (PFL-AE) catalyzes the generation of a catalytically essential glycyl radical on pyruvate formate-lyase (PFL). Purified PFL-AE contains an oxygen-sensitive, labile [4Fe-4S] cluster that undergoes cluster interconversions in vitro, with only the [4Fe-4S](+) cluster state being catalytically active. Such cluster interconversions could play a role in regula...

Subunits Rpo3 and Rpb3/AC40 of RNA polymerase (RNAP) from many archaea and some eukaryotes, respectively, contain a ferredoxin-like domain (FLD) predicted to bind one or two [4Fe-4S] clusters postulated to play a role in regulating the assembly of RNAP. To test this hypothesis, the two [4Fe-4S] cluster Rpo3 from Methanosarcina acetivorans was modified to generate variants that lack the FLD or e...

A simple exactly solvable model is proposed for describing the decays $\Upsilon (4S) \rightarrow B^0\bar B^0$ and B^+B^-$. Our predictions agree with available experimental data. Using this model, we analyze Coulomb effects in spectra of these decays. It shown that frequently used assumption factorization not fulfilled. The interaction leads to difference positions heights peaks corresponding c...

The 4S pathway is the most studied bioprocess for the removal of the recalcitrant sulfur of aromatic heterocycles present in fuels. It consists of three sequential functional units, encoded by the dszABCD genes, through which the model compound dibenzothiophene (DBT) is transformed into the sulfur-free 2-hydroxybiphenyl (2HBP) molecule. In this work, a set of synthetic dsz cassettes were implan...

Interconversion between [4Fe-4S] cubane and [3Fe-4S] cuboidal states represents one of the simplest structural changes an iron-sulphur cluster can undertake. This reaction is implicated in oxidative damage and in modulation of the activity and regulation of certain enzymes, and it is therefore important to understand the factors governing cluster stability and the processes that activate cluste...

For deoxyribonucleotide synthesis during anaerobic growth, Escherichia coli cells depend on an oxygen-sensitive class III ribonucleotide reductase. The enzyme system consists of two proteins: protein a, on which ribonucleotides bind and are reduced, and protein b, of which the function is to introduce a catalytically essential glycyl radical on protein a. Protein b can assemble one [4Fe-4S] cen...

Fumarate and nitrate reduction (FNR) regulatory proteins are O(2)-sensing bacterial transcription factors that control the switch between aerobic and anaerobic metabolism. Under anaerobic conditions [4Fe-4S](2+)-FNR exists as a DNA-binding homodimer. In response to elevated oxygen levels, the [4Fe-4S](2+) cluster undergoes a rapid conversion to a [2Fe-2S](2+) cluster, resulting in a dimer-to-mo...

Iron-Sulfur (Fe-S) clusters and proteins are essential to many growth and developmental processes. In plants, they exist in the plastids, mitochondria, cytosol, and nucleus. Six types of Fe-S clusters are found in the plastid: classic 2Fe-2S, NEET-type 2Fe-2S, Rieske-type 2Fe-2S, 3Fe-4S, 4Fe-4S, and siroheme 4Fe-4S. Classic, NEET-type, and Rieske-type 2Fe-2S clusters have the same 2Fe-2S core; ...