Increasing evidence suggests that iron-sulfur proteins are the primary targets of NO (nitric oxide). Exposure of Escherichia coli cells to NO readily converts iron-sulfur proteins to the protein-bound DNICs (dinitrosyl iron complexes). While the protein-bound DNICs are stable in vitro under aerobic or anaerobic conditions, they are efficiently repaired in aerobically growing E. coli cells even without new protein synthesis. The cellular repair mechanism for the NO-modified iron-sulfur proteins remains largely elusive. Here we report that unlike aerobically growing E. coli cells, the starved E. coli cells fail to re-activate the NO-modified iron-sulfur proteins. Significantly, addition of L-cysteine, but not other related biological thiols, results in decomposition of the protein-bound DNICs in the starved E. coli cells and in the cell extracts under aerobic conditions. However, L-cysteine has little or no effect on the protein-bound DNICs in the starved E. coli cells and in vitro under anaerobic conditions, suggesting that oxygen is required for the L-cysteine-mediated decomposition of the protein-bound DNICs. Additional studies reveal that L-cysteine is able to exchange the DNIC with the protein-bound DNICs to form the L-cysteine-bound DNIC which is rapidly disrupted by oxygen, resulting in eventual decomposition of the protein-bound DNICs under aerobic conditions.