Fe-S CLUSTERS BIOGENESIS AND HOMEOSTASIS

Our research is focused on stress responses. Stress means “unbalanced” and for a bacterium, to live under stress is almost a routine way of living. Most bacteria are constantly exposed to fluctuating environments and what we are interested in is how they sense, react and adapt to get back to homeostasis. In particular, we investigate how Iron-sulfur clusters (Fe-S) homeostasis is maintained.
Fe-S cluster are ancient, ubiquitous and versatile metal cofactors. Fe-S cluster-containing proteins constitute one of the largest families of proteins, with myriads of functions. Thus, Fe-S proteins are indispensable contributors to metabolism in all kingdoms of life. Complex multiprotein machineries ensure the essential task to assemble Fe-S clusters and to subsequently transfer them to recipient proteins in all sort environmental conditions, including those that are detrimental for Fe-S clusters, such as oxidative stress and iron limitation.
Using model bacteria, our project takes advantage of our well-established expertise in genetics and biochemical approaches to develop an “integrative” view of Fe-S cluster biogenesis.
The questions we raise encompass:
i) The molecular mechanism of Fe-S cluster biogenesis.
ii) The genetic regulation to establish Fe-S cluster homeostasis.
iii) The physiological importance of Fe-S cluster biogenesis and its genetic control.