Project description:Mitochondrial gene expression relies on mitoribosomes to translate mitochondrial mRNAs. The biogenesis of mitoribosomes is an intricate process involving multiple assembly factors. Among these factors, GTP-binding proteins (GTPBPs) play crucial roles. In bacterial systems, numerous GTPBPs are required for ribosome subunit maturation, with EngB being a GTPBP involved in the ribosomal large subunit assembly. In this study, we focused on exploring the function of GTPBP8, the human homolog of EngB. We found that ablation of GTPBP8 leads to the inhibition of mitochondrial translation, resulting in significant impairment of oxidative phosphorylation. In the absence of GTPBP8, numerous mitoribosomal proteins from both subunits become destabilized, indicating GTPBP8's involvement in synchronized subunit assembly. Furthermore, structural analysis of mitoribosomes from GTPBP8 knock-out cells showed the accumulation of mitoribosomal large subunit assembly intermediates that are incapable of forming functional monosomes. Our study highlights the crucial role of GTPBP8 as a component of the mitochondrial gene expression machinery involved in mitoribosome biogenesis.
Project description:Mitochondrial gene expression relies on mitoribosomes to translate mitochondrial mRNAs. The biogenesis of mitoribosomes is an intricate process involving multiple assembly factors. Among these factors, GTP-binding proteins (GTPBPs) play crucial roles. In bacterial systems, numerous GTPBPs are required for ribosome subunit maturation, with EngB being a GTPBP involved in the ribosomal large subunit assembly. In this study, we focused on exploring the function of GTPBP8, the human homolog of EngB. We found that ablation of GTPBP8 leads to the inhibition of mitochondrial translation, resulting in significant impairment of oxidative phosphorylation. In the absence of GTPBP8, numerous mitoribosomal proteins from both subunits become destabilized, indicating GTPBP8's involvement in synchronized subunit assembly. Furthermore, structural analysis of mitoribosomes from GTPBP8 knock-out cells showed the accumulation of mitoribosomal large subunit assembly intermediates that are incapable of forming functional monosomes. Our study highlights the crucial role of GTPBP8 as a component of the mitochondrial gene expression machinery involved in mitoribosome biogenesis.
Project description:Mitochondrial gene expression relies on mitoribosomes to translate mitochondrial mRNAs. The biogenesis of mitoribosomes is an intricate process involving multiple assembly factors. Among these factors, GTP-binding proteins (GTPBPs) play crucial roles. In bacterial systems, numerous GTPBPs are required for ribosome subunit maturation, with EngB being a GTPBP involved in the ribosomal large subunit assembly. In this study, we focused on exploring the function of GTPBP8, the human homolog of EngB. We found that ablation of GTPBP8 leads to the inhibition of mitochondrial translation, resulting in significant impairment of oxidative phosphorylation. Structural analysis of mitoribosomes from GTPBP8 knock-out cells showed the accumulation of mitoribosomal large subunit assembly intermediates that are incapable of forming functional monosomes. Furthermore, fPAR-CLIP analysis revealed that GTPBP8 is an RNA-binding protein that interacts specifically with the mitochondrial ribosome large subunit16S rRNA. Our study highlights the crucial role of GTPBP8 as a component of the mitochondrial gene expression machinery involved in mitochondrial large subunit maturation.
Project description:We report here that human mitochondria contain small RNA including microRNA, piRNA, tRNA, rRNA, and RNA repeats. Mitochondria from human cells were purified and RNA isolated. Small RNAs were purified, library generated and analyzed by Illumina Hiseq 2000 system. The sequencing generated 19.5 and 17.7 million reads from HEK-293 and HeLa respectively. 91% and 97% sequences of HEK293 and HeLa respectively were annotated to various classes of small RNA. The total percentage of 4.21 and 2.58 sequences from HEK293 and HeLa respectively was found to be of miRNA. Further, we found only 1.2 % sequences from both the libraries aligned to mitochondrial genome. These results suggest that there is efficient transport of nuclear encoded small RNA to mitochondria. The small RNA in mitochondria may regulate critical cellular processes. Analyzing the smallRNA in human mitochondria from two human cell lines (HEK-293 and HeLa).
Project description:The production of mitochondrial OXPHOS complexes is central to cellular metabolism, although the molecular details of mitochondrial translation remain enigmatic. It is widely held that translation initiation in human mitochondria proceeds similarly to bacterial systems, with mRNA binding the mitoribosomal small subunit in the presence of initiation factors, mtIF2and mtIF3, and initiator tRNA. However, unlike in bacteria, most human mitochondrial mRNAs do not possess 5′ leader sequences that mediate binding to the small subunit. Thus, how leaderless mRNAs are recognized by the mitoribosome is not known. By developing a single-molecule, fluorescence-based in vitro translation initiation assay, alongside the biochemical and genetic characterization of cellular knockouts of mitochondrial translation factors, we describe a mechanism for non-canonical translation initiation in human mitochondria. We show leaderless mt-mRNAs can be loaded onto 55S monosomes and translated independently of mtIF3 activity. However, in the case of the bicistronic ATP8/ATP6 transcript, translation of the downstream open reading frame (ORF) is dependent upon mtIF3 and is uncoupled from the upstream leaderless ORF, highlighting distinct role for the human initiation factor. Furthermore, we found mtIF2 to be essential for mitochondrial protein synthesis, but not monosome formation, while mitoribosome recycling was important for mitoribosome homeostasis. These data define an important evolutionary diversion of mitochondrial translation system, and further our fundamental understanding of a process central to eukaryotic metabolism.
Project description:Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are key players in cancer progression, immune evasion, drug resistance, and recurrence, particularly in ovarian cancer. Mitochondria-associated membranes (MAMs) are dynamic structures linking mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum, essential for cellular processes. Whether MAMs supports CSCs and the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here, we unveil that CPT1A is highly expressed in ovarian cancer stem cells (OCSCs) and is essential for stemness maintenance. CPT1A facilitates stemness maintenance by regulating lipid desaturation in ovarian cancer. Further studies confirmed that CPT1A enhances SREBP1 cleavage and nuclear translocation, thereby upregulating SCD1 expression and promoting lipid desaturation in OCSCs. Furthermore, MAMs are found to be critical for SREBP1 activation. Mechanistic studies have shown that CPT1A promotes mitochondrial fission factor (MFF) succinylation (succK-MFF) through its lysine succinyltransferase (LSTase) activity, with succK-MFF being crucial for MAMs formation and SREBP1 activation. Additionally, inhibiting the LSTase activity of CPT1A with Glyburide reduced OCSCs' stemness and enhanced cisplatin's anti-tumor effects against ovarian cancer both in vitro and in vivo. Together, our studies reveal the importance of CPT1A's LSTase activity in MAMs formation and OCSCs' stemness maintenance, providing potential targets and therapeutic strategies for ovarian cancer treatment.