Iron Proteins for Storage & Transport & Their Synthetic Analogs

Abstract

This article reviews proteins involved in iron metabolism. Brief descriptions are given of the biological contexts for the proteins discussed but the main emphasis is on chemical and structural aspects of them. Iron is essential to almost all forms of life, but its low bioavailability and toxicity mean that they require sophisticated mechanisms to transport it. Mammals acquire heme and nonheme iron via proteins in the gut wall, and transport it around the body using serum transferrin, for ferric iron, and hemopexin, for heme. Microbes have an active iron uptake mechanism involving small iron chelators called siderophores, for example, ferrichrome in Escherichia coli . Ferrichrome enters the cell via FhuA, a β‐barrel in the outer membrane. The periplasmic protein FhuD then transfers it to the FhuBC complex in the cytoplasmic membrane. FhuB forms a channel through which the ferric siderophore passes using energy supplied by FhuC. Once inside the cytoplasm the iron is removed from the ligand, possibly via reduction by FhuF. Some pathogenic bacteria have a similar system for heme uptake, secreting hemophores such as HasA, which can remove heme from hemoglobin. Other pathogens have outer membrane receptors that remove ferric iron from transferrin and transport it into the periplasm, where it is bound by ferric binding proteins that closely resemble a single lobe of transferrin. Following its acquisition, iron needs to be stored safely. The most widespread form of iron storage is the ferritin superfamily, which includes ferritin, bacterioferritin, and Dps. Ferritin is found in bacteria, plants, and animals and is a large shell made up of 24 subunits within which up to 4,500 ferric ions can be stored as a ferrihydrite mineral core. Bacterioferritin is found in bacteria and is closely related to ferritin, but contains up to 12 heme groups bound between pairs of subunits, which may play a role in iron release or electron storage. The bacterial protein Dps is smaller than ferritin, with 12 subunits forming the protein shell, and can hold up to 500 ferric ions. All of these proteins contain dinuclear iron sites that catalyze the oxidation of ferrous iron. An alternative form of iron storage is frataxin, found in mitochondria. Although not related to ferritin, this protein has the ability to form large aggregates that can store up to 50 ferric ions per monomer in a mineral core resembling those of ferritins.