Identification of new factors involved in the mitochondrial gene expression at post-transcriptional level in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Mitochondrial gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been studied for manyyears, providing fundamental insights into the mechanisms and regulation of thisprocess in multicellular organisms. In most eukaryotes, mitochondria contain their owngenetic system encoding a small set of subunits involved in the assembly of oxidationphosphorylation complexes in the inner mitochondrial membrane. The mitochondrialgenetic expression system demands cell energy, with roughly a quarter of the yeastmitochondrial proteome involved in this process, which is predominantly regulated atpost-transcriptional level. Recently, we have searched for proteins that could regulatemitochondrial gene expression by acting in mRNA stability or processing and proteinsynthesis. Here, we will focus on the study of Mrx9p, Msc6p, and Mrx1p. They werepreviously found in a large protein interactome termed MIOREX that includes themitoribosomes and provides different forms for gene regulation. However, keysunanswered questions concerning several MIOREX components need to be addressedto understand their molecular mechanism of action.