Formation of iron-sulfur clusters in bacteria: an emerging field in bioinorganic chemistry.

Biological iron-sulfur clusters are chemically versatile inorganic structures that are attached to many proteins. These clusters are intimately involved in the functions of their partner proteins and they are required to sustain life on earth. Recent work has demonstrated that, in spite of their simple structures, the assembly and insertion of iron-sulfur clusters into their protein partners is a complex biological process. This complexity is probably related to the cellular toxicity of iron and sulfur in their free forms.