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Redox regulation of proteins of the mitochondrial intermembrane space

Subject Area Biochemistry
Term from 2007 to 2017
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 54247812
 
Final Report Year 2018

Final Report Abstract

The intermembrane space (IMS) of mitochondria contains about 50 to 100 proteins, many of which contain conserved disulfide bonds. All IMS proteins are synthesized on cytosolic ribosomes and are imported through the pore of the TOM complex. The IMS protein Mia40 plays two essential and experimental separable functions in the biogenesis of IMS proteins. First, its hydrophobic substrate binding cleft serves as docking site for cytosolic IMS precursors. Binding to Mia40 is essential for the translocation of IMS proteins across the outer membrane. Secondly, Mia40 serves as oxidoreductase which introduces disulfide bonds into substrates that are bound to its hydrophobic substrate binding cleft. The Mia40-mediated protein import can occur independent of disulfide bond formation, however, in vivo, both reactions are kinetically and functionally coordinated. Mia40 interacts with many different IMS proteins to promote their import and oxidative folding. In this project we studied the biogenesis and function of a number of model proteins in detail: Atp23 is a soluble IMS protease that contains five disulfide bonds. Each single disulfide bond is dispensable for Atp23 stability and function, however, a version lacking all cysteines is unable to fold and is rapidly degraded. Nevertheless, a cysteine-less variant of Atp23 is still efficiently bound by Mia40 and imported into the IMS. In vitro, Mia40 prevents this model protein from aggregation, thus exhibits a chaperone-like activity. Mrp10 is the only so far identified Mia40 substrates that is fully translocated into the matrix. This protein is initially imported into the IMS in a Mia40-mediated manner. It forms a helixloop-helix structure in the IMS that is stabilized by two disulfide bonds before it translocates across the inner membrane. In the matrix it assembles into the small subunit of the mitochondrial ribosome. Mia40-dependent oxidation is important for proteolytic stability of Mrp10. Tim17 differs from other Mia40 substrate as it is embedded into the inner membrane. Although Mia40 is critical for the import of Tim17 across the IMS, the disulfide bond in Tim17 is formed by Erv1, the sulfhydryl oxidase that maintains Mia40 oxidized. Oxidation of Tim17 is critical for efficient gating of the mitochondrial inner membrane translocase. In this project we characterized the mechanisms by which the protein oxidation machinery of the IMS promotes the import and folding of its substrates. Moreover, we characterized the biogenesis and function of a number of Mia40 substrates, most of which are conserved factors present in mitochondria of yeast, animals and humans.

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