Fe-S cluster biogenesis

Currently the main project in our lab is the study of the Suf Fe-S cluster biogenesis system in bacteria.  This pathway is used in some bacterial pathogens for building Fe-S clusters under stress conditions, such as iron starvation or oxidative stress.  We are taking advantage of the versatile model organism, Escherichia coli (or E. coli) to study this pathway.  E. coli are gram-negative Proteobacteria that grow rapidly and can be genetically manipulated with a variety of techniques.  They make an ideal single cell model to study this process.  The E. coli Suf system consists of multiple proteins, most of which are encoded by the sufABCDSE operon.  Most recently we have focused our efforts on characterizing the individual Suf proteins in vitro using purified proteins.  We are studying how the proteins interact, the individual mechanistic roles of each protein in the Fe-S cluster assembly process, and how the proteins regulate each others activities to coordinate Fe-S cluster assembly.