Mitochondrial Bol1 and Bol3 function as assembly factors for specific iron-sulfur proteins

  1. Marta A Uzarska
  2. Veronica Nasta
  3. Benjamin D Weiler
  4. Farah Spantgar
  5. Simone Ciofi-Baffoni
  6. Maria Rosaria Saviello
  7. Leonardo Gonnelli
  8. Ulrich Mühlenhoff
  9. Lucia Banci  Is a corresponding author
  10. Roland Lill  Is a corresponding author
  1. Philipps-Universität, Germany
  2. University of Florence, Italy
  3. Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany

Abstract

Assembly of mitochondrial iron-sulfur (Fe/S) proteins is a key process of cells, and defects cause many rare diseases. In the first phase of this pathway, ten Fe/S cluster (ISC) assembly components synthesize and insert [2Fe-2S] clusters. The second phase is dedicated to the assembly of [4Fe-4S] proteins, yet this part is poorly understood. Here, we characterize the BOLA family proteins Bol1 and Bol3 as specific mitochondrial ISC assembly factors that facilitate [4Fe-4S] cluster insertion into a subset of mitochondrial proteins such as lipoate synthase and succinate dehydrogenase. Bol1-Bol3 perform largely overlapping functions, yet cannot replace the ISC protein Nfu1 that also participates in this phase of Fe/S protein biogenesis. Bol1 and Bol3 form dimeric complexes with both monothiol glutaredoxin Grx5 and Nfu1. Complex formation differentially influences the stability of the Grx5-Bol-shared Fe/S clusters. Our findings provide the biochemical basis for explaining the pathological phenotypes of patients with mutations in BOLA3.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Marta A Uzarska

    Institut für Zytobiologie und Zytopathologie, Philipps-Universität, Marburg, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Veronica Nasta

    Magnetic Resonance Center CERM, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Benjamin D Weiler

    Institut für Zytobiologie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Farah Spantgar

    Institut für Zytobiologie und Zytopathologie, Philipps-Universität, Marburg, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Simone Ciofi-Baffoni

    Magnetic Resonance Center CERM, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Maria Rosaria Saviello

    Magnetic Resonance Center CERM, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Leonardo Gonnelli

    Magnetic Resonance Center CERM, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Ulrich Mühlenhoff

    Institut für Zytobiologie und Zytopathologie, Philipps-Universität, Marburg, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Lucia Banci

    Magnetic Resonance Center CERM, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
    For correspondence
    banci@cerm.unifi.it
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Roland Lill

    Institut für Zytobiologie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany
    For correspondence
    lill@staff.uni-marburg.de
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8345-6518

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SPP 1927)

  • Roland Lill

European Commission (iNEXT 653706)

  • Lucia Banci

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 987)

  • Ulrich Mühlenhoff
  • Roland Lill

European strategy forum on research infrastructures (Instruct)

  • Lucia Banci

LOEWE program of state Hesse, Germany (Synmikro)

  • Roland Lill

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2016, Uzarska et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 2,369
    views
  • 610
    downloads
  • 104
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Marta A Uzarska
  2. Veronica Nasta
  3. Benjamin D Weiler
  4. Farah Spantgar
  5. Simone Ciofi-Baffoni
  6. Maria Rosaria Saviello
  7. Leonardo Gonnelli
  8. Ulrich Mühlenhoff
  9. Lucia Banci
  10. Roland Lill
(2016)
Mitochondrial Bol1 and Bol3 function as assembly factors for specific iron-sulfur proteins
eLife 5:e16673.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.16673

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.16673

Further reading

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    Nelson García-Vázquez, Tania J González-Robles ... Michele Pagano
    Research Article

    In healthy cells, cyclin D1 is expressed during the G1 phase of the cell cycle, where it activates CDK4 and CDK6. Its dysregulation is a well-established oncogenic driver in numerous human cancers. The cancer-related function of cyclin D1 has been primarily studied by focusing on the phosphorylation of the retinoblastoma (RB) gene product. Here, using an integrative approach combining bioinformatic analyses and biochemical experiments, we show that GTSE1 (G-Two and S phases expressed protein 1), a protein positively regulating cell cycle progression, is a previously unrecognized substrate of cyclin D1–CDK4/6 in tumor cells overexpressing cyclin D1 during G1 and subsequent phases. The phosphorylation of GTSE1 mediated by cyclin D1–CDK4/6 inhibits GTSE1 degradation, leading to high levels of GTSE1 across all cell cycle phases. Functionally, the phosphorylation of GTSE1 promotes cellular proliferation and is associated with poor prognosis within a pan-cancer cohort. Our findings provide insights into cyclin D1’s role in cell cycle control and oncogenesis beyond RB phosphorylation.

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Mai Nguyen, Elda Bauda ... Cecile Morlot
    Research Article

    Teichoic acids (TA) are linear phospho-saccharidic polymers and important constituents of the cell envelope of Gram-positive bacteria, either bound to the peptidoglycan as wall teichoic acids (WTA) or to the membrane as lipoteichoic acids (LTA). The composition of TA varies greatly but the presence of both WTA and LTA is highly conserved, hinting at an underlying fundamental function that is distinct from their specific roles in diverse organisms. We report the observation of a periplasmic space in Streptococcus pneumoniae by cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections. The thickness and appearance of this region change upon deletion of genes involved in the attachment of TA, supporting their role in the maintenance of a periplasmic space in Gram-positive bacteria as a possible universal function. Consequences of these mutations were further examined by super-resolved microscopy, following metabolic labeling and fluorophore coupling by click chemistry. This novel labeling method also enabled in-gel analysis of cell fractions. With this approach, we were able to titrate the actual amount of TA per cell and to determine the ratio of WTA to LTA. In addition, we followed the change of TA length during growth phases, and discovered that a mutant devoid of LTA accumulates the membrane-bound polymerized TA precursor.