| Popis: |
Iron-sulpur clusters are small ubiquitous cofactors of proteins present in all cells. These proteins participate in many important processes such as gene expression or respiratory chain. In vivo synthesis of iron-sulphur clusters requires complex biosynthetic pathways. In eukaryotic cells these pathways are localized inside mitochondria and plastids and in the cytosol. Cytosolic synthesis depends on a product of the mitochondrial pathway. Mitochondria of anaerobic protists in most cases went through reductive evolution, which is associated with the reduction of mitochondrial iron-sulphur cluster biosynthetic pathway. In many cases, these organisms acquired alternative pathways via lateral gene transfer, which act either as a complement to the mitochondrial pathway, or as its complete functional substitution. Replacement of the mitochondrial pathway might have been a key event for secondary loss of mitochondria. Key words: Iron-sulphur clusters, anaerobic protists, ISC, CIA, SUF, mitochondrion |
