Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) patients display severe neurological and cardiac symptoms that reflect a strong cellular and axonal degeneration. FRDA is caused by a loss of function of the mitochondrial protein frataxin, which impairs the biosynthesis of iron-sulfur clusters and in turn the catalytic activity of several enzymes in the Krebs cycle and the respiratory chain leading to a diminished energy production. Although FRDA is due to frataxin depletion, making too much frataxin in cells may help to understand cellular functions of frataxin. In this work, the authors have increased frataxin expression in neurons to figure out specific roles that frataxin might play in these tissues. They report that frataxin overexpression is sufficient to increase oxidative phosphorylation, modify mitochondrial morphology, alter iron homeostasis and trigger oxidative stress-dependent cell death. Interestingly, genetic manipulation of mitochondrial iron metabolism successfully improved cell survival under oxidative-attack conditions, although enhancing antioxidant defenses or mitochondrial fusion failed to ameliorate frataxin overexpression phenotypes. This result suggests that cell degeneration may be directly related to enhanced incorporation of iron into the mitochondria.

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