title: Hitting the brakes: termination of mitochondrial transcription.
abstract: Deficiencies in mitochondrial protein production are associated with human disease and aging. Given the central role of transcription in gene expression, recent years have seen a renewed interest in understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling this process. In this review, we have focused on the mostly uncharacterized process of transcriptional termination. We review how several recent breakthroughs have provided insight into our understanding of the termination mechanism, the protein factors that mediate termination, and the functional relevance of different termination events. Furthermore, the identification of termination defects resulting from a number of mtDNA mutations has led to the suggestion that this could be a common mechanism influencing pathogenesis in a number of mitochondrial diseases, highlighting the importance of understanding the processes that regulate transcription in human mitochondria. We discuss how these recent findings set the stage for future studies on this important regulatory mechanism. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Mitochondrial Gene Expression.
authors.affiliation: Medical Scientist Training Program, Graduate Program in Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. kip@pharm.stonybrook.edu
authors.forename: Kip E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Guja
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garcia-Diaz
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D050976:Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D028361:Mitochondrial Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009154:Mutation; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D050976:Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; C105178:MTERF1 protein, human; D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins