Cysteine desulfurases mobilize the sulfur from L-cysteine to yield L-alanine, an essential step in sulfur metabolism for biosynthesis of a variety of sulfur-containing biomolecules. Component of the suf operon, which is activated and required under specific conditions such as oxidative stress and iron limitation. Acts as a potent selenocysteine lyase in vitro, that mobilizes selenium from L-selenocysteine. Selenocysteine lyase activity is however unsure in vivo