Naturally occurring phytoferritin is a heteropolymer consisting of two different H-type subunits, H-1 and H-2. Prior to this study, however, the function of the two subunits in oxidative deposition of iron in ferritin was unknown. The data show that, upon aerobic addition of 48 -200 Fe 2؉ /shell to apoferritin, iron oxidation occurs only at the diiron ferroxidase center of recombinant H1 (rH-1). In addition to the diiron ferroxidase mechanism, such oxidation is catalyzed by the extension peptide (a specific domain found in phytoferritin) of rH-2, because the H-1 subunit is able to remove Fe 3؉ from the center to the inner cavity better than the H-2 subunit. These findings support the idea that the H-1 and H-2 subunits play different roles in iron mineralization in protein. Interestingly, at medium iron loading (200 irons/shell), wild-type (WT) soybean seed ferritin (SSF) exhibits a stronger activity in catalyzing iron oxidation (1.10 ؎ 0.13 M iron/subunit/s) than rH-1 (0.59 ؎ 0.07 M iron/subunit/s) and rH-2 (0.48 ؎ 0.04 M iron/subunit/s), demonstrating that a synergistic interaction exists between the H-1 and H-2 subunits in SSF during iron mineralization. Such synergistic interaction becomes considerably stronger at high iron loading (400 irons/shell) as indicated by the observation that the iron oxidation activity of WT SSF is ϳ10 times larger than those of rH-1 and rH-2. This helps elucidate the widespread occurrence of heteropolymeric ferritins in plants.Iron and oxygen chemistry, in a variety of non-heme diiron proteins, has drawn considerable attention because of their various roles in reversible O 2 binding for respiration in hemerythrin, oxidation and desaturation of organic substrates in methane monooxygenase, R2 subunit of ribonucleotide reductase, stearoyl-acyl carrier protein ⌬-9 desaturase, as well as the detoxification and concentration of iron in Dps and ferritin (1-6). Diiron centers have similar structural motifs containing a combination of carboxylate and histidine ligands that either bind or bridge the two metal ions of the dinuclear active site. Although the dinuclear centers of the protein are very similar in structure, each of the proteins fulfills a different biological function that appears to be mediated by the nature of the first and second coordination sphere of the diiron center.Ferritins are a special class of diiron proteins that play a role in both iron housekeeping and iron detoxification. They are widely distributed in animals, plants, and bacteria (but not in yeast) and are typically composed of 24 similar or identical subunits assembled into a shell-like structure. In vertebrates, ferritins consist of two types of subunits, H and L, respectively. The two types have about 55% identity in amino acid sequence.