title: Amphiphilicity is essential for mitochondrial presequence function.
abstract: We have shown earlier that a mitochondrial presequence peptide can form an amphiphilic helix. However, the importance of amphiphilicity for mitochondrial presequence function became doubtful when an artificial presequence, designed to be non-amphiphilic, proved to be active as a mitochondrial import signal. We now show experimentally that this 'non-amphiphilic' presequence peptide is, in fact, highly amphiphilic as measured by its ability to insert into phospholipid monolayers and to disrupt phospholipid vesicles. This result, and similar tests on three additional artificial presequences (two functionally active and one inactive), revealed that all active presequences were amphiphilic whereas the inactive presequence was non-amphiphilic. One of the active presequence peptides was non-helical in solution and in the presence of detergent micelles. We conclude that amphiphilicity is necessary for mitochondrial presequence function whereas a helical structure may not be essential.
authors.affiliation: Biocenter, University of Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Roise
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Theiler
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Horvath
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tomich
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Allison
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schatz
mesh_terms: D002942:Circular Dichroism; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008563:Membrane Lipids / Q000378:metabolism*; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism*; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000378:metabolism*; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008563:Membrane Lipids; D010455:Peptides; D010743:Phospholipids