Coming into View: Eukaryotic Iron Chaperones and Intracellular Iron Delivery

Eukaryotic cells contain hundreds of metalloproteins, and ensuring that each protein receives the correct metal ion is a critical task for cells. Recent work in budding yeast and mammalian cells has uncovered a system of iron delivery operating in the cytosolic compartment that involves monothiol glutaredoxins, which bind iron in the form of iron-sulfur clusters, and poly(rC)-binding proteins, which bind Fe(II) directly. In yeast cells, cytosolic monothiol glutaredoxins are required for the formation of heme and iron-sulfur clusters and the metallation of some non-heme iron enzymes. Poly(rC)-binding proteins can act as iron chaperones, delivering iron to target non-heme enzymes through direct protein-protein interactions. Although the molecular details have yet to be explored, these proteins, acting independently or together, may represent the basic cellular machinery for intracellular iron delivery.