Mitochondrial Protein Synthesis Features
Surprising Features Of Mitochondrial Protein Synthesis Features Discovered
Surprising features of mitochondrial protein synthesis have been discovered by the researchers at the Karolinska Institutet. The fundamental mechanisms used by the cell’s power plant has been shed light upon in this study.
This study was published in Nature Communications.
Containing their own genome and the machinery for its expression, mitochondria are essential organelles. Complex pathologies, including a large, clinically diverse group of disorders called mitochondrial diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and cancer can be caused due to defects in mitochondrial protein synthesis.
Protein synthesis factories in mitochondria
Specialized ribosomes, mitoribosomes carry out the protein production within mitochondria. The composition and structure of human mitoribosomes, and their translational factors, are significantly different from those of their bacterial counterparts despite the shared ancestry of mitochondria and bacteria.
One of the senior authors of the study, and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Karolinska Institutet, Joanna Rorbach notes, “We are only now starting to uncover how mitochondria produce proteins even though the mechanisms of bacterial a
nd cytosolic translation have been studied for decades.”To reveal the early stages of mitochondrial translation, the researchers took a multidisciplinary approach, which included cryo-EM and single-molecule fluorescence methods.
The first author of the article and a postdoctoral researcher in Joanna Rorbach’s group, Anas Khawaja says, “The action of mitochondrial initiator factors and the elements of the mitoribosome that evolved mitochondria-specific mechanisms are shown for the first time in our study.”
An important step towards understanding the fundamental biochemistry of these systems, which may help yield novel therapeutic opportunities is represented in the results as it sheds light on mitochondrial protein synthesis and its dysfunction, that are implicit in cellular homeostasis and a growing spectrum of clinical disorders.
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Surprising Mitochondrial protein synthesis Features Discovered
