Ancestral and derived protein import pathways in the mitochondrion of Reclinomonas americana.

ABSTRACT: The evolution of mitochondria from ancestral bacteria required that new protein transport machinery be established. Recent controversy over the evolution of these new molecular machines hinges on the degree to which ancestral bacterial transporters contributed during the establishment of the new protein import pathway. Reclinomonas americana is a unicellular eukaryote with the most gene-rich mitochondrial genome known, and the large collection of membrane proteins encoded on the mitochondrial genome of R. americana includes a bacterial-type SecY protein transporter. Analysis of expressed sequence tags shows R. americana also has components of a mitochondrial protein translocase or "translocase in the inner mitochondrial membrane complex." Along with several other membrane proteins encoded

SUBMITTER: Tong J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3080133 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature