Heterologous Expression of Either Human or Soya Bean Ferritins in Budding Yeast Reveals Common Functions Protecting Against Oxidative Agents and Counteracting Double-Strand Break Accumulation.

Ferritins are globular proteins that, upon self-assembly in nanocages, are capable of bio-safely storing huge concentrations of bioavailable iron. They are present in most cell types and organisms; one of the exceptions is yeast. Heterologous expression of either human or vegetal ferritins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae revealed new and unknown functions for soya bean ferritins; validated this model by confirming previously characterized functions in human ferritins and also demonstrated that, like human H chain, vegetal H1, and H2 chains also shown a tendency to localize in the nucleus when expressed in an eukaryotic cell model lacking plastids and chloroplasts. Furthermore, when expressed in the system budding yeast, the four ferritins (human H and L and soya bean H1 and H2 chains) present equivalent and relevant functions as protectors against oxidative damage and against the accumulation of double-strand breaks in the DNA. We present evidence demonstrating that these effects are exclusively observed with oxidative agents that operate through the Fenton reaction, such as H(2)O(2). Here, we also discuss the ferritin requirement for N-glycosylation to exert these functions. We believe that our approach might contribute to extending the knowledge around ferritin function and its consequent relevance to human health.