Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model for mitochondrial translation studies

Abstract

Our aim is to investigate mitochondria biogenesis through the study of genes with unknown function. In the last ten years we have characterized the following genes: COX23, COX24, COQ9, COQ10, ATP25, GTF1 and MTG3. They are involved in different aspects of mitochondria biogenesis such as the assembly of cytochrome c oxidase, CoQ function, ATP synthase formation, and mitochondria translation. On the other hand, the similarity between yeast and human respiratory metabolism allows the assessment of human pathological mutations in yeast. The proposal here is to investigate S. cerevisiae genes involved in the mitochondrial translation process, as seem to be the case of YPR116w, YDR065c , YDR115w and others. The project also aim to search for new translational factors through the allotopic expression of the mitochondrial genes COX2 and ATP8. Finally, using yeast as a model, the project aim to search for a human gene ortologous for the yeast amidotransferase connector subunit, which is also involved in the organelle translation process. (AU)