			Home About us Contact

Phosphorylation System (phosphorylation + system)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	75%

Selected Abstracts

Cytochrome c oxidase biogenesis: New levels of regulation

IUBMB LIFE, Issue 9 2008
Flavia Fontanesi
Abstract Eukaryotic cytochrome c oxidase (COX), the last enzyme of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, is a multimeric enzyme of dual genetic origin, whose assembly is a complicated and highly regulated process. COX displays a concerted accumulation of its constitutive subunits. Data obtained from studies performed with yeast mutants indicate that most catalytic core unassembled subunits are posttranslationally degraded. Recent data obtained in the yeast Saccharomycescerevisiae have revealed another contribution to the stoichiometric accumulation of subunits during COX biogenesis targeting subunit 1 or Cox1p. Cox1p is a mitochondrially encoded catalytic subunit of COX which acts as a seed around which the full complex is assembled. A regulatory mechanism exists by which Cox1p synthesis is controlled by the availability of its assembly partners. The unique properties of this regulatory mechanism offer a means to catalyze multiple-subunit assembly. New levels of COX biogenesis regulation have been recently proposed. For example, COX assembly and stability of the fully assembled enzyme depend on the presence in the mitochondrial compartments of two partners of the oxidative phosphorylation system, the mobile electron carrier cytochrome c and the mitochondrial ATPase. The different mechanisms of regulation of COX assembly are reviewed and discussed. © 2008 IUBMB IUBMB Life, 60(9): 557,568, 2008 [source]

Properties of Human Mitochondrial Ribosomes

IUBMB LIFE, Issue 9 2003
Thomas W. O'Brien
Abstract Mammalian mitochondrial ribosomes (55S) differ unexpectedly from bacterial (70S) and cytoplasmic ribosomes (80S), as well as other kinds of mitochondrial ribosomes. Typical of mammalian mitochondrial ribosomes, the bovine mitochondrial ribosome has been developed as a model system for the study of human mitochondrial ribosomes, to address several questions related to the structure, function, biosynthesis and evolution of these interesting ribosomes. Bovine mitochondrial ribosomal proteins (MRPs) from each subunit have been identified and characterized with respect to individuality and electrophoretic properties, amino acid sequence, topographic disposition, RNA binding properties, evolutionary relationships and reaction with affinity probes of ribosomal functional domains. Several distinctive properties of these ribosomes are being elucidated, including their antibiotic susceptibility and composition. Human mitochondrial ribosomes lack several of the major RNA stem structures of bacterial ribosomes but they contain a correspondingly higher protein content (as many as 80 proteins), suggesting a model where proteins have replaced RNA structural elements during the evolution of these ribosomes. Despite their lower RNA content they are physically larger than bacterial ribosomes, because of the 'extra' proteins they contain. The extra proteins in mitochondrial ribosomes are 'new' in the sense that they are not homologous to proteins in bacterial or cytoplasmic ribosomes. Some of the new proteins appear to be bifunctional. All of the mammalian MRPs are encoded in nuclear genes (a separate set from those encoding cytoplasmic ribosomal proteins) which are evolving more rapidly than those encoding cytoplasmic ribosomal proteins. The MRPs are imported into mitochondria where they assemble coordinately with mitochondrially transcribed rRNAs into ribosomes that are responsible for translating the 13 mRNAs for essential proteins of the oxidative phosphorylation system. IUBMB Life, 55: 505-513, 2003 [source]

Signal Transfer in Haloarchaeal Sensory Rhodopsin, Transducer Complexes,

PHOTOCHEMISTRY & PHOTOBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2008
Jun Sasaki
Membrane-inserted complexes consisting of two photochemically reactive sensory rhodopsin (SR) subunits flanking a homodimer of a transducing protein subunit (Htr) are used by halophilic archaea for sensing light gradients to modulate their swimming behavior (phototaxis). The SR,Htr complexes extend into the cytoplasm where the Htr subunits bind a his-kinase that controls a phosphorylation system that regulates the flagellar motors. This review focuses on current progress primarily on the mechanism of signal relay within the SRII,HtrII complexes from Natronomonas pharaonis and Halobacterium salinarum. The recent elucidation of a photoactive site steric trigger crucial for signal relay, advances in understanding the role of proton transfer from the chromophore to the protein in SRII activation, and the localization of signal relay to the membrane-embedded portion of the SRII,HtrII interface, are beginning to produce a clear picture of the signal transfer process. The SR,Htr complexes offer unprecedented opportunities to resolve first examples of the chemistry of signal relay between membrane proteins at the atomic level, which would provide a major contribution to the general understanding of dynamic interactions between integral membrane proteins. [source]

Dynamics of the Dictyostelium discoideum mitochondrial proteome during vegetative growth, starvation and early stages of development

PROTEINS: STRUCTURE, FUNCTION AND BIOINFORMATICS, Issue 1 2010
Malgorzata Czarna
Abstract In this study, a quantitative comparative proteomics approach has been used to analyze the Dictyostelium discoideum mitochondrial proteome variations during vegetative growth, starvation and the early stages of development. Application of 2-D DIGE technology allowed the detection of around 2000 protein spots on each 2-D gel with 180 proteins exhibiting significant changes in their expression level. In total, 96 proteins (51 unique and 45 redundant) were unambiguously identified. We show that the D. discoideum mitochondrial proteome adaptations mainly affect energy metabolism enzymes (the Krebs cycle, anaplerotic pathways, the oxidative phosphorylation system and energy dissipation), proteins involved in developmental and signaling processes as well as in protein biosynthesis and fate. The most striking observations were the opposite regulation of expression of citrate synthase and aconitase and the very large variation in the expression of the alternative oxidase that highlighted the importance of citrate and alternative oxidase in the physiology of the development of D. discoideum. Mitochondrial energy states measured in vivo with MitoTracker Orange CMÔRos showed an increase in mitochondrial membrane polarization during D. discoideum starvation and starvation-induced development. [source]