Conserved properties of hydrogenosomal and mitochondrial ADP/ATP carriers: a common origin for both organelles.

ABSTRACT: Mitochondria are one of the hallmarks of eukaryotic cells, exporting ATP in exchange for cytosolic ADP using ADP/ATP carriers (AAC) located in the inner mitochondrial membrane. In contrast, several evolutionarily important anaerobic eukaryotes lack mitochondria but contain hydrogenosomes, peculiar organelles of controversial ancestry that also supply ATP but, like some fermentative bacteria, make molecular hydrogen in the process. We have now identified genes from two species of the hydrogenosome-containing fungus Neocallimastix that have three-fold sequence repeats and signature motifs that, along with phylogenetic analysis, identify them as AACs. When expressed in a mitochondrial AAC- deficient yeast strain, the hydrogenosomal protein was correctly targeted to the yeast mitochondria inne

SUBMITTER: van der Giezen M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC125860 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature