Genome Property Definition Page

Accession

GenProp0742

Name

iron-sulfur cluster assembly NIF system

Type

SYSTEM

Description

Iron-sulfur (FeS) cluster assembly systems include the NIF system, which is part of nitrogen fixation clusters in a number of bacteria, as well as the ISC and SUF systems. The latter two make FeS clusters for a wide variety of proteins, while NIF and a related system called CsdA-CsdE may produce FeS clusters for only a small range of target proteins. The defining components of the NIF-type systems described here are the cysteine desulfurase NifS and the FeS cluster assembly scaffold protein NifU. The terms NifS and NifU are applied not only to components of nitrogen fixation systems, but also to tandem gene pairs in other organisms such as Helicobacter pylori. These NifU-like and NifS-like proteins largely fall into separate clades, and are best modeled by separate HMMs, but are included in this Genome Property as components of NIF-type systems. NifS/NifU or NifS-like/NifU-like pairs may produce FeS clusters for a limited range of target proteins, as in Azotobacter vinelandii, or uniquely within the cell, as in Helicobacter pylori.

Parent Property

GenProp0140: iron-sulfur cluster assembly systems

Literature References

[ 1 ]Yuvaniyama P, Agar JN, Cash VL, Johnson MK, Dean DR NifS-directed assembly of a transient [2Fe-2S] cluster within the NifU protein. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000 Jan 18;97(2):599-604. PMID 10639125
[ 2 ]Johnson DC, Dos Santos PC, Dean DR NifU and NifS are required for the maturation of nitrogenase and cannot replace the function of isc-gene products in Azotobacter vinelandii. Biochem Soc Trans. 2005 Feb;33(Pt 1):90-3. PMID 15667274

Gene Ontology Term

GO:0016226: iron-sulfur cluster assembly (biological_process)

Components

Step Name	Step Num	Required	Evidence (Method)	Evidence Go Terms
cysteine desulfurase NifS	NifS	YES	TIGR03402 (HMM): cysteine desulfurase NifS TIGR03403 (HMM): cysteine desulfurase, NifS family	GO:0016226: iron-sulfur cluster assembly GO:0016226: iron-sulfur cluster assembly
FeS cluster formation protein NifU	NifU	YES	TIGR02000 (HMM): Fe-S cluster assembly protein NifU TIGR03419 (HMM): FeS cluster assembly scaffold protein NifU	GO:0016226: iron-sulfur cluster assembly GO:0016226: iron-sulfur cluster assembly

Parent Properties

Accession	Name
GenProp0140	iron-sulfur cluster assembly systems

Sibling Properties

Accession	Name
GenProp0137	iron-sulfur cluster assembly SUF system
GenProp0138	iron-sulfur cluster assembly iscSUA-hscBA-fdx system
GenProp0739	iron-sulfur cluster assembly CsdA-CsdE system