Structural Insights into a Fusion Protein between a Glutaredoxin-like and a Ferredoxin-Disulfide Reductase Domain from an Extremophile Bacterium

In eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms, ferredoxin-thioredoxin reductases (FTRs) are key proteins reducing several types of chloroplastic thioredoxins (TRXs) in light conditions. The electron cascade necessary to reduce oxidized TRXs involves a pair of catalytic cysteines and a [4Fe-4S] cluster present at the level of the FTR catalytic subunit, the iron-sulfur cluster receiving electrons from ferredoxins. Genomic analyses revealed the existence of FTR orthologs in non-photosynthetic organisms, including bacteria and archaea, referred to as ferredoxin-disulfide reductase (FDR) as they reduce various types of redoxins. In this study, we describe the tridimensional structure of a natural hybrid protein formed by an N-terminal glutaredoxin-like domain fused to a FDR domain present in the marine bacterium Desulfotalea psychrophila Lsv54. This structure provides information on how and why the absence of the variable subunit present in FTR heterodimer which normally protects the Fe-S cluster is dispensable in FDR proteins. In addition, modelling of a tripartite complex based on the existing structure of a rubredoxin (RBX)-FDR fusion present in anaerobic methanogen archaea allows recapitulating the electron flow involving these RBX, FDR and GRX protein domains.

Automated summary

This study reveals the three-dimensional structure of a natural hybrid protein formed by the fusion of an N-terminal glutaredoxin-like domain and an FDR domain in the marine bacterium Desulfotalea psychrophila Lsv54. The structure provides insights into the dispensability of the variable subunit that normally protects the Fe-S cluster in FDR proteins and the electron flow involving RBX, FDR, and GRX protein domains observed in anaerobic methanogen archaea.