A group of researchers in the Institute of Food Agrochemistry and Technology (IATA), belonging to the Higher Council for the Scientific Research (CSIC) at the Universitat de València’s Parc Científic, have just decoded the genetic control mechanisms operating when there is iron deficiency. The study has been directed by Sergi Puig (from IATA) and published in the famous journal 'Molecular Cell'. Carried out in collaboration with the Universitat de València and the University of Colorado (USA), this study brings new expectations regarding the development of strategies within the health and food areas.
Two researchers from the Universitat’s Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Mari Carmen Bañó and Nerea Sanvisens -this one being a graduate grantee and first author of the paper published-, and Sergi Puig, nowadays scientist for the CSIC, have participated in the study.
Iron is vital in every living beings’ diet. Iron deficiency anemia is the most common nutritional desease in the world, being more usual in women and children. One of the reasons for the iron to be such vital is that it actively participates in the synthesis of our cells’ genetic material, called DNA.
The paper published in Molecular Cell decodes the molecular mechanisms controlling the activity of the enzyme RNR in response to the iron deficiency in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the eukariotic organism, which is an archetypal model and a biotechnology tool in nutrition. It shows how the DNA synthesis process absorbs the most part of the iron when there is a deficiency of it.
This researchers have discovered that a protein called Cth2 allows the yeast cells to optimize iron’s use when it is scarce, thus favoring its use in cell key processes such as DNA synthesis through the enzyme RNR’s activation, and reducing other less important processes, which consume high quantities of the nutrient.
Last update: 12 de december de 2011 09:02.
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