Metabolism of Trichomonad Hydrogenosomes

Trichomonad hydrogenosomes are probably the best studied organelles of their kind to date. Their role in energy metabolism has been firmly established and their indispensable function in the assembly of iron–sulfur centers, the vital cofactors of certain proteins, has been discovered rather recently. In this chapter, we summarize the knowledge of trichomonad hydrogenosome biochemistry, particularly the energy-linked pathway, the oxygen-related biochemistry, and the iron–sulfur cluster assembly machinery. The structure of the proteins constituting the core pathway is dealt with in some detail. We also attempt to accommodate the findings of the Trichomonas vaginalis genome sequencing project into the metabolic scheme of the hydrogenosome.