Catch me if you can! Oxidative protein trapping in the intermembrane space of mitochondria.
The intermembrane space (IMS) of mitochondria, the compartment that phylogenetically originated from the periplasm of bacteria, contains machinery to catalyze the oxidative folding of proteins (Mesecke, N., N. Terziyska, C. Kozany, F. Baumann, W. Neupert, K. Hell, and J.M. Herrmann. 2005. Cell. 121:1059-1069; Rissler, M., N. Wiedemann, S. Pfannschmidt, K. Gabriel, B. Guiard, N. Pfanner, and A. Chacinska. 2005. J. Mol. Biol. 353: 485-492; Tokatlidis, K. 2005. Cell. 121:965-96). This machinery introduces disulfide bonds into newly imported precursor proteins, thereby locking them in a folded conformation. Because folded proteins cannot traverse the translocase of the outer membrane, this stably traps the proteins in the mitochondria. The principle of protein oxidation in the IMS presumably has been conserved from the bacterial periplasm and has been adapted during evolution to drive the vectorial translocation of proteins from the cytosol into the mitochondria.
Herrmann
Johannes M
JM
Department of Cell Biology, University of Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany. hannes.herrmann@biologie.uni-kl.de
Köhl
Roman
R
D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051336:Mitochondrial Membranes / Q000378:metabolism*; D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010088:Oxidoreductases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D017510:Protein Folding; D021381:Protein Transport / Q000502:physiology; D050862:Oxidoreductases Acting on Sulfur Group Donors
D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins; D010088:Oxidoreductases; D050862:Oxidoreductases Acting on Sulfur Group Donors