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1.
Biogenic Sulfur-Based Chalcogenide Nanocrystals: Methods of Fabrication, Mechanistic Aspects, and Bio-Applications.
Yanchatuña Aguayo, OP, Mouheb, L, Villota Revelo, K, Vásquez-Ucho, PA, Pawar, PP, Rahman, A, Jeffryes, C, Terencio, T, Dahoumane, SA
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland). 2022;(2)
Abstract
Bio-nanotechnology has emerged as an efficient and competitive methodology for the production of added-value nanomaterials (NMs). This review article gathers knowledge gleaned from the literature regarding the biosynthesis of sulfur-based chalcogenide nanoparticles (S-NPs), such as CdS, ZnS and PbS NPs, using various biological resources, namely bacteria, fungi including yeast, algae, plant extracts, single biomolecules, and viruses. In addition, this work sheds light onto the hypothetical mechanistic aspects, and discusses the impact of varying the experimental parameters, such as the employed bio-entity, time, pH, and biomass concentration, on the obtained S-NPs and, consequently, on their properties. Furthermore, various bio-applications of these NMs are described. Finally, key elements regarding the whole process are summed up and some hints are provided to overcome encountered bottlenecks towards the improved and scalable production of biogenic S-NPs.
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2.
The multifaceted roles of sulfane sulfur species in cancer-associated processes.
Zuhra, K, Tomé, CS, Forte, E, Vicente, JB, Giuffrè, A
Biochimica et biophysica acta. Bioenergetics. 2021;(2):148338
Abstract
Sulfane sulfur species comprise a variety of biologically relevant hydrogen sulfide (H2S)-derived species, including per- and poly-sulfidated low molecular weight compounds and proteins. A growing body of evidence suggests that H2S, currently recognized as a key signaling molecule in human physiology and pathophysiology, plays an important role in cancer biology by modulating cell bioenergetics and contributing to metabolic reprogramming. This is accomplished through functional modulation of target proteins via H2S binding to heme iron centers or H2S-mediated reversible per- or poly-sulfidation of specific cysteine residues. Since sulfane sulfur species are increasingly viewed not only as a major source of H2S but also as key mediators of some of the biological effects commonly attributed to H2S, the multifaceted role of these species in cancer biology is reviewed here with reference to H2S, focusing on their metabolism, signaling function, impact on cell bioenergetics and anti-tumoral properties.
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3.
Novel sulphur-oxidizing bacteria consummate sulphur deficiency in oil seed crop.
Joshi, N, Gothalwal, R, Singh, M, Dave, K
Archives of microbiology. 2021;(1):1-6
Abstract
Plants absorb sulphate, the oxidized form of elemental sulphur (S°), from soil. Sulphur-oxidizing bacteria play a key role in transformation of sulphur in soil. Oil seed crops require high amount of sulphur and it plays an important role in the formation of proteins, vitamins and enzymes. It increases yield, oil content and protein content in oil seed crops. Sulphur is the important constituent of amino acids, viz. methionine, cystine, and cysteine. It necessitates various enzymatic, metabolic processes such as photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation. In the last few years, the prominence of sulphur in oil seed crop nutrition has been accepted as widespread occurrence of its inadequacy in agricultural soil. Approximately 41% of Indian soil is deficient in sulphur. The soil microbial population is the major enforcement behind sulphur transformation. They mineralize, immobilize, oxidize and reduce the elemental and other reduced forms of sulphur. The main step in transformation is oxidation carried out by microorganisms to convert sulphur into sulphate. The chemolithotrophic bacteria belonging to genus Thiobacillus are of primary importance; there are heterotrophic bacteria also which can oxidize sulphur in soil. The pH reduction at the time of oxidation helps in mineralization and absorption of other essential nutrients also. This property of sulphur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB) shows their potential to be used as bioinoculants. Bioformulations prepared using carrier-based formulations, immobilization, biostimulation, etc., are sustainable forms of fertilizers. These SOB inoculants can be used to increase the fertility and sulphate production in soil.
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4.
Molecular Details of the Frataxin-Scaffold Interaction during Mitochondrial Fe-S Cluster Assembly.
Campbell, CJ, Pall, AE, Naik, AR, Thompson, LN, Stemmler, TL
International journal of molecular sciences. 2021;(11)
Abstract
Iron-sulfur clusters are essential to almost every life form and utilized for their unique structural and redox-targeted activities within cells during many cellular pathways. Although there are three different Fe-S cluster assembly pathways in prokaryotes (the NIF, SUF and ISC pathways) and two in eukaryotes (CIA and ISC pathways), the iron-sulfur cluster (ISC) pathway serves as the central mechanism for providing 2Fe-2S clusters, directly and indirectly, throughout the entire cell in eukaryotes. Proteins central to the eukaryotic ISC cluster assembly complex include the cysteine desulfurase, a cysteine desulfurase accessory protein, the acyl carrier protein, the scaffold protein and frataxin (in humans, NFS1, ISD11, ACP, ISCU and FXN, respectively). Recent molecular details of this complex (labeled NIAUF from the first letter from each ISC protein outlined earlier), which exists as a dimeric pentamer, have provided real structural insight into how these partner proteins arrange themselves around the cysteine desulfurase, the core dimer of the (NIAUF)2 complex. In this review, we focus on both frataxin and the scaffold within the human, fly and yeast model systems to provide a better understanding of the biophysical characteristics of each protein alone and within the FXN/ISCU complex as it exists within the larger NIAUF construct. These details support a complex dynamic interaction between the FXN and ISCU proteins when both are part of the NIAUF complex and this provides additional insight into the coordinated mechanism of Fe-S cluster assembly.
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5.
Geminal Diheteroatomic Motifs: Some Applications of Acetals, Ketals, and Their Sulfur and Nitrogen Homologues in Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Design.
Wu, YJ, Meanwell, NA
Journal of medicinal chemistry. 2021;(14):9786-9874
Abstract
Acetals and ketals and their nitrogen and sulfur homologues are often considered to be unconventional and potentially problematic scaffolding elements or pharmacophores for the design of orally bioavailable drugs. This opinion is largely a function of the perception that such motifs might be chemically unstable under the acidic conditions of the stomach and upper gastrointestinal tract. However, even simple acetals and ketals, including acyclic molecules, can be sufficiently robust under acidic conditions to be fashioned into orally bioavailable drugs, and these structural elements are embedded in many effective therapeutic agents. The chemical stability of molecules incorporating geminal diheteroatomic motifs can be modulated by physicochemical design principles that include the judicious deployment of proximal electron-withdrawing substituents and conformational restriction. In this Perspective, we exemplify geminal diheteroatomic motifs that have been utilized in the discovery of orally bioavailable drugs or drug candidates against the backdrop of understanding their potential for chemical lability.
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6.
Potential Implications of Interactions between Fe and S on Cereal Fe Biofortification.
Kawakami, Y, Bhullar, NK
International journal of molecular sciences. 2020;(8)
Abstract
Iron (Fe) and sulfur (S) are two essential elements for plants, whose interrelation is indispensable for numerous physiological processes. In particular, Fe homeostasis in cereal species is profoundly connected to S nutrition because phytosiderophores, which are the metal chelators required for Fe uptake and translocation in cereals, are derived from a S-containing amino acid, methionine. To date, various biotechnological cereal Fe biofortification strategies involving modulation of genes underlying Fe homeostasis have been reported. Meanwhile, the resultant Fe-biofortified crops have been minimally characterized from the perspective of interaction between Fe and S, in spite of the significance of the crosstalk between the two elements in cereals. Here, we intend to highlight the relevance of Fe and S interrelation in cereal Fe homeostasis and illustrate the potential implications it has to offer for future cereal Fe biofortification studies.
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7.
Sulfur Homeostasis in Plants.
Li, Q, Gao, Y, Yang, A
International journal of molecular sciences. 2020;(23)
Abstract
Sulfur (S) is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and development. S is majorly absorbed as sulfate from soil, and is then translocated to plastids in leaves, where it is assimilated into organic products. Cysteine (Cys) is the first organic product generated from S, and it is used as a precursor to synthesize many S-containing metabolites with important biological functions, such as glutathione (GSH) and methionine (Met). The reduction of sulfate takes place in a two-step reaction involving a variety of enzymes. Sulfate transporters (SULTRs) are responsible for the absorption of SO42- from the soil and the transport of SO42- in plants. There are 12-16 members in the S transporter family, which is divided into five categories based on coding sequence homology and biochemical functions. When exposed to S deficiency, plants will alter a series of morphological and physiological processes. Adaptive strategies, including cis-acting elements, transcription factors, non-coding microRNAs, and phytohormones, have evolved in plants to respond to S deficiency. In addition, there is crosstalk between S and other nutrients in plants. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in understanding the mechanisms underlying S homeostasis in plants.
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8.
The Role of Selective Protein Degradation in the Regulation of Iron and Sulfur Homeostasis in Plants.
Wawrzyńska, A, Sirko, A
International journal of molecular sciences. 2020;(8)
Abstract
Plants are able to synthesize all essential metabolites from minerals, water, and light to complete their life cycle. This plasticity comes at a high energy cost, and therefore, plants need to tightly allocate resources in order to control their economy. Being sessile, plants can only adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions, relying on quality control mechanisms. The remodeling of cellular components plays a crucial role, not only in response to stress, but also in normal plant development. Dynamic protein turnover is ensured through regulated protein synthesis and degradation processes. To effectively target a wide range of proteins for degradation, plants utilize two mechanistically-distinct, but largely complementary systems: the 26S proteasome and the autophagy. As both proteasomal- and autophagy-mediated protein degradation use ubiquitin as an essential signal of substrate recognition, they share ubiquitin conjugation machinery and downstream ubiquitin recognition modules. Recent progress has been made in understanding the cellular homeostasis of iron and sulfur metabolisms individually, and growing evidence indicates that complex crosstalk exists between iron and sulfur networks. In this review, we highlight the latest publications elucidating the role of selective protein degradation in the control of iron and sulfur metabolism during plant development, as well as environmental stresses.
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9.
Iron-sulfur cluster signaling: The common thread in fungal iron regulation.
Gupta, M, Outten, CE
Current opinion in chemical biology. 2020;:189-201
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Abstract
Iron homeostasis in fungi involves balancing iron uptake and storage with iron utilization to achieve adequate, nontoxic levels of this essential nutrient. Extensive work in the nonpathogenic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe has uncovered unique iron regulation networks for each organism that control iron metabolism via distinct molecular mechanisms. However, common themes have emerged from these studies. The activities of all fungal iron-sensing transcription factors characterized to date are regulated via iron-sulfur cluster signaling. Furthermore, glutaredoxins often play a key role in relaying the intracellular iron status to these DNA-binding proteins. Recent work with fungal pathogens, including Candida and Aspergillus species and Cryptococcus neoformans, has revealed novel iron regulation mechanisms, yet similar roles for iron-sulfur clusters and glutaredoxins in iron signaling have been confirmed. This review will focus on these recent discoveries regarding iron regulation pathways in both pathogenic and nonpathogenic fungi.
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10.
Making iron-sulfur cluster: structure, regulation and evolution of the bacterial ISC system.
Baussier, C, Fakroun, S, Aubert, C, Dubrac, S, Mandin, P, Py, B, Barras, F
Advances in microbial physiology. 2020;:1-39
Abstract
Iron sulfur (Fe-S) clusters rank among the most ancient and conserved prosthetic groups. Fe-S clusters containing proteins are present in most, if not all, organisms. Fe-S clusters containing proteins are involved in a wide range of cellular processes, from gene regulation to central metabolism, via gene expression, RNA modification or bioenergetics. Fe-S clusters are built by biogenesis machineries conserved throughout both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. We focus mostly on bacterial ISC machinery, but not exclusively, as we refer to eukaryotic ISC system when it brings significant complementary information. Besides covering the structural and regulatory aspects of Fe-S biogenesis, this review aims to highlight Fe-S biogenesis facets remaining matters of discussion, such as the role of frataxin, or the link between fatty acid metabolism and Fe-S homeostasis. Last, we discuss recent advances on strategies used by different species to make and use Fe-S clusters in changing redox environmental conditions.