Coenzyme Q biosynthetic proteins assemble in a substrate-dependent manner into domains at ER-mitochondria contacts.

ABSTRACT: Coenzyme Q (CoQ) lipids are ancient electron carriers that, in eukaryotes, function in the mitochondrial respiratory chain. In mitochondria, CoQ lipids are built by an inner membrane-associated, multicomponent, biosynthetic pathway via successive steps of isoprenyl tail polymerization, 4-hydroxybenzoate head-to-tail attachment, and head modification, resulting in the production of CoQ. In yeast, we discovered that head-modifying CoQ pathway components selectively colocalize to multiple resolvable domains in vivo, representing supramolecular assemblies. In cells engineered with conditional ON or OFF CoQ pathways, domains were strictly correlated with CoQ production and substrate flux, respectively, indicating that CoQ lipid intermediates are required for domain formation. Mitochondrial CoQ

SUBMITTER: Subramanian K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6446851 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature