An Orchestrated Balance between Mitochondria Biogenesis, Iron-Sulfur Cluster Synthesis and Cellular Iron Acquisition

• Published in: Blood 2018-11, Vol.132 (Supplement 1), p.1048-1048
• Main Authors: La, Ping, Ghiaccio, Valentina, Zhang, Jianbing, Rivella, Stefano
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0006-4971; 1528-0020
• DOI: 10.1182/blood-2018-99-112198

Fe-S clusters are essential cofactors for mitochondria functions, and mitochondria are required for Fe-S cluster synthesis. Additionally, mitochondria biogenesis demands cellular iron uptake, which is negatively regulated by Fe-S clusters. Fe-S clusters are synthesized in the mitochondria and cytosol by two different machineries. However, cytosolic Fe-S cluster synthesis necessitates the mitochondrial Fe-S cluster assembly machinery. PGC-1α is a transcriptional coactivator and a master regulator of mitochondria biogenesis. We confirmed that overexpression of PGC-1α in adipocytes and hepatocytes stimulated mitochondria biogenesis, as measured by Mitotrack Green and Deep Red staining, which label total and alive mitochondria, respectively. We further measured Fe-S cluster synthesis by monitoring the gene expression of Fe-S cluster assembly machinery. By using RT-qPCR and Western Blot analyses, we confirmed that PGC-1α expression increases expression of ABCB7, ISCA1, ISCA2, ISD11, Nfu1 and ISCU, components of the Fe-S assembly machinery, suggesting a coordination between mitochondria biogenesis and Fe-S cluster synthesis. Iron Regulatory Proteins (IRP1 and IRP2) control iron metabolism by binding to specific non-coding sequences within an mRNA, known as iron-responsive elements (IRE). In the absence of Fe-S clusters, IRP1 acts as an aconitase (aka ACO1), while IRP2 is degraded by ubiquitination. Aconitases, represented by the cytosolic form ACO1 and mitochondrial form ACO2, catalyze the isomerization of citrate to isocitrate and require Fe-S clusters to be enzymatically active. PGC-1α overexpression enhanced aconitase activity but not their protein levels, corroborating the notion that Fe-S cluster synthesis was increased. To explore whether this coordination solely depends on PGC-1α, we evaluated the Fe-S cluster synthesis status during brown adipocyte maturation, which is characterized by enhanced mitochondria biogenesis and has been suggested to be PGC-1α-independent. We found that the synthesis of Fe-S cluster assembly machinery increased during maturation in both wild-type and PGC-1α-knockout brown adipocytes, indicating that Fe-S cluster synthesis coordinates with mitochondria biogenesis even in the absence of PGC-1α. To explore the impact of Fe-S cluster synthesis on iron acquisition under enhanced mitochondria biogenesis, we evaluated the expression of the iron importer transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1). TfR1 mRNA contains IREs in the 3' untranslated regi