Glycation is an inevitable non-enzymatic covalent reaction between proteins and endogenous reducing sugars or dicarbonyls (methylglyoxal, glyoxal) that results in protein inactivation. DJ-1 was reported to be a multifunctional oxidative stress response protein with poorly defined function. Here, we show that human DJ-1 is a protein deglycase that repairs methylglyoxal- and glyoxal-glycated amino acids and proteins by acting on early glycation intermediates, and releases repaired proteins and lactate or glycolate, respectively. DJ-1 deglycates cysteines, arginines and lysines (the three major glycated amino acids) of serum albumin, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, aldolase, and aspartate aminotransferase, and thus reactivates these proteins. DJ-1 prevented protein glycation in an Escherichia coli mutant deficient in the DJ-1 homolog YajL, and restored cell viability in glucose-containing media. These results suggest that DJ-1-associated Parkinsonism results from excessive protein glycation and establishes DJ-1 as a major anti-glycation and anti-aging protein.

Not-so-sweet DNA damage repaired: Glyoxal and methylglyoxal, by-products of sugar metabolism that are present in all cells, can react with, and thus damage, DNA. Indeed, glycation of guanine (G) is as prevalent as the major product of oxidative damage in DNA, 8-oxo-dG. Richarme et al. show that both prokaryotes and eukaryotes have dedicated systems that specifically repair glycation damage (see the Perspective by Dingler and Patel). The parkinsonism-associated protein DJ-1/Park7 and its bacterial homologs Hsp31, YhbO, and YajL direct the enzymatic repair of damaged glycated bases in DNA. The proteins also clean up the more vulnerable pool of free nucleotides in the cell, which are more susceptible to glycation than the nucleotides within DNA. Science , this issue p. 208 ; see also p. 130

We investigated iron uptake mechanisms in five marine microalgae from different ecologically important phyla: the diatoms Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Thalassiosira pseudonana, the prasinophyceae Ostreococcus tauri and Micromonas pusilla, and the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi. Among these species, only the two diatoms were clearly able to reduce iron, via an inducible (P. tricornutum) or constitutive (T. pseudonana) ferrireductase system displaying characteristics similar to the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) flavohemoproteins proteins. Iron uptake mechanisms probably involve very different components according to the species, but the species we studied shared common features. Regardless of the presence and/or induction of a ferrireductase system, all the species were able to take up both ferric and ferrous iron, and iron reduction was not a prerequisite for uptake. Iron uptake decreased with increasing the affinity constants of iron-ligand complexes and with increasing ligand-iron ratios. Therefore, at least one step of the iron uptake mechanism involves a thermodynamically controlled process. Another step escapes to simple thermodynamic rules and involves specific and strong binding of ferric as well as ferrous iron at the cell surface before uptake of iron. Binding was paradoxically increased in iron-rich conditions, whereas uptake per se was induced in all species only after prolonged iron deprivation. We sought cell proteins loaded with iron following iron uptake. One such protein in O. tauri may be ferritin, and in P. tricornutum, Isip1 may be involved. We conclude that the species we studied have uptake systems for both ferric and ferrous iron, both involving specific iron binding at the cell surface.