A trypanosomal orthologue of an intermembrane space chaperone has a non-canonical function in biogenesis of the single mitochondrial inner membrane protein translocase.

ABSTRACT: Mitochondrial protein import is essential for Trypanosoma brucei across its life cycle and mediated by membrane-embedded heterooligomeric protein complexes, which mainly consist of trypanosomatid-specific subunits. However, trypanosomes contain orthologues of small Tim chaperones that escort hydrophobic proteins across the intermembrane space. Here we have experimentally analyzed three novel trypanosomal small Tim proteins, one of which contains only an incomplete Cx3C motif. RNAi-mediated ablation of TbERV1 shows that their import, as in other organisms, depends on the MIA pathway. Submitochondrial fractionation combined with immunoprecipitation and BN-PAGE reveals two pools of small Tim proteins: a soluble fraction forming 70 kDa complexes, consistent with hexamers and a second fraction

SUBMITTER: Wenger C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5584982 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature