Yeast cells depleted of the frataxin homolog Yfh1 redistribute cellular iron: Studies using Mössbauer spectroscopy and mathematical modeling

The neurodegenerative disease Friedreich’s ataxia arises from a deficiency of frataxin, a protein that promotes iron–sulfur cluster (ISC) assembly in mitochondria. Here, primarily using Mössbauer spectroscopy, we investigated the iron content of a yeast strain in which expression of yeast frataxin homolog 1 (Yfh1), oxygenation conditions, iron concentrations, and metabolic modes were varied. We found that aerobic fermenting Yfh1-depleted cells grew slowly and accumulated Fe(III) nanoparticles, unlike WT cells. Under hypoxic conditions, the same mutant cells grew at rates similar to WT cells, had similar iron content, and were dominated by Fe(II) rather than Fe(III) nanoparticles. Furthermore, mitochondria from mutant hypoxic cells contained approximately the same levels of ISCs as WT cells, confirming that Yfh1 is not required for ISC assembly. These cells also did not accumulate excessive iron, indicating that iron accumulation into yfh1-deficient mitochondria is stimulated by O(2). In addition, in aerobic WT cells, we found that vacuoles stored Fe(III), whereas under hypoxic fermenting conditions, vacuolar iron was reduced to Fe(II). Under respiring conditions, vacuoles of Yfh1-deficient cells contained Fe(III), and nanoparticles accumulated only under aerobic conditions. Taken together, these results informed a mathematical model of iron trafficking and regulation in cells that could semiquantitatively simulate the Yfh1-deficiency phenotype. Simulations suggested partially independent regulation in which cellular iron import is regulated by ISC activity in mitochondria, mitochondrial iron import is regulated by a mitochondrial Fe(II) pool, and vacuolar iron import is regulated by cytosolic Fe(II) and mitochondrial ISC activity.