Interactions of iron-bound frataxin with ISCU and ferredoxin on the cysteine desulfurase complex leading to Fe-S cluster assembly

Frataxin (FXN) is involved in mitochondrial iron-sulfur (Fe-S) cluster biogenesis and serves to accelerate Fe-S cluster formation. FXN deficiency is associated with Friedreich ataxia, a neurodegenerative disease. We have used a combination of isothermal titration calorimetry and multinuclear NMR spectroscopy to investigate interactions among the components of the biological machine that carries out the assembly of iron-sulfur clusters in human mitochondria. Our results show that FXN tightly binds a single Fe(2+) but not Fe(3+). While FXN (with or without bound Fe(2+)) does not bind the scaffold protein ISCU directly, the two proteins interact mutually when each is bound to the cysteine desulfurase complex ([NFS1](2):[ISD11](2):[Acp](2)), abbreviated as (NIA)(2), where “N” represents the cysteine desulfurase (NFS1), “I” represents the accessory protein (ISD11), and “A” represents acyl carrier protein (Acp). FXN binds (NIA)(2) weakly in the absence of ISCU but more strongly in its presence. Fe(2+)-FXN binds to the (NIA)(2)-ISCU(2) complex without release of iron. However, upon the addition of both L-cysteine and a reductant (either reduced FDX2 or DTT), Fe(2+) is released from FXN as consistent with Fe(2+)-FXN being the proximal source of iron for Fe-S cluster assembly.