ISCu Recombinant Protein

This gene encodes a component of the iron-sulfur (Fe-S) cluster scaffold. Fe-S clusters are cofactors that play a role in the function of a diverse set of enzymes, including those that regulate metabolism, iron homeostasis, and oxidative stress response. Alternative splicing results in transcript variants encoding different protein isoforms that localize either to the cytosol or to the mitochondrion. Mutations in this gene have been found in patients with hereditary myopathy with lactic acidosis. A disease-associated mutation in an intron may activate a cryptic splice site, resulting in the production of a splice variant encoding a putatively non-functional protein. A pseudogene of this gene is present on chromosome 1. [provided by RefSeq, Feb 2016]

Scaffold protein for the de novo synthesis of iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters within mitochondria, which is required for maturation of both mitochondrial and cytoplasmic [2Fe-2S] and [4Fe-4S] proteins (PubMed:11060020). First, a [2Fe-2S] cluster is transiently assembled on the scaffold protein ISCU. In a second step, the cluster is released from ISCU, transferred to a glutaredoxin GLRX5, followed by the formation of mitochondrial [2Fe-2S] proteins, the synthesis of [4Fe-4S] clusters and their target-specific insertion into the recipient apoproteins. Cluster assembly on ISCU depends on the function of the cysteine desulfurase complex NFS1-LYRM4/ISD11, which serves as the sulfur donor for cluster synthesis, the iron-binding protein frataxin as the putative iron donor, and the electron transfer chain comprised of ferredoxin reductase and ferredoxin, which receive their electrons from NADH ().