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Mitochondrial membrane permeabilization (MMP) is a ratelimiting step of apoptosis, including in anticancer chemotherapy. Adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT) mediates the exchange of ADP and ATP on the inner mitochondrial membrane in healthy cells. In addition, ANT can cooperate with Bax to form a lethal pore during apoptosis. Humans possess four distinct ANT isoforms, encoded by four genes, whose transcription depends on the cell type, developmental stage, cell proliferation, and hormone status. Here, we show that the ANT2 gene is up-regulated in several hormonedependent cancers. Knockdown of ANT2 by RNA interference induced no major changes in the aspect of the mitochondrial network or cell cycle but provoked minor increase in mitochondrial transmembrane potential and reactive oxygen species level and reduced intracellular ATP concentration without affecting glycolysis. At expression and functional levels, ANT2 depletion was not compensated by other ANT isoforms. Most importantly, ANT2, but not ANT1, silencing facilitated MMP induction by lonidamine, a mitochondriontargeted antitumor compound already used in clinical studies for breast, ovarian, glioma, and lung cancer as well as prostate adenoma. The combination of ANT2 knockdown with lonidamine induced apoptosis irrespective of the Bcl-2 status. These data identify ANT2 as an endogenous inhibitor of MMP and suggest that its selective inhibition could constitute a promising strategy of chemosensitization. (Cancer Res 2006; 66(18): 9143-52)

The genomes of three bacteria (Haemophilus influenzae, Mycoplasma genitalium, and Escherichia coli) and two eukaryotes (Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Caenorhabditis elegans) were compared. The distribution of their putative open reading frames (ORFs) was studied, and several conclusions were drawn: (1) All of these genomes, even the smallest, exhibit a significant proportion (7%-30%) of duplicated ORFs. This proportion is a function of genome size and appears unrelated to the bacteria/eukaryote division. (2) Some of these ORFs constitute families of up 20 or more members. (3) The levels of sequence similarity within these families are highly variable and their distribution is different among bacteria and eukaryotes. (4) In yeast, there are topological relationships between members of the same family. The paired ORFs are frequently in the same orientation with regard to their respective telomeres and located at comparable distances from them.

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We have sequenced a DNA fragment of 39 411 bp which includes part of the left telomere of chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have identified 19 open reading frames (ORFs); six correspond to known yeast genes (ADH4, FZF1, HKB, RTG2, HFM1 and PDE1), nine have similarity with other genes and four exhibit no significant similarity with any known gene. The average size of these ORFs seems to be related to their location, the eight ORFs nearest the telomere being shorter than the 11 others. These two groups of genes are separated by a region of 4·5 kb devoid of significant ORFs. One ORF, NRF120, is a new member of the seripauperine family, represented once in all sequenced yeast chromosomes, in a subtelomeric location. This sequence has been entered in the EMBL data library under accession number X94357.

We have sequenced a DNA fragment of 39,411 bp which includes part of the left telomere of chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have identified 19 open reading frames (ORFs); six correspond to known yeast genes (ADH4, FZF1, HKB, RTG2, HFM1 and PDE1), nine have similarity with other genes and four exhibit no significant similarity with any known gene. The average size of these ORFs seems to be related to their location, the eight ORF's nearest the telomere being shorter than the 11 others. These two groups of genes are separated by a region of 4.5 kb devoid of significant ORFs. One ORF, NRF120, is a new member of the seripauperine family, represented once in all sequenced yeast chromosomes, in a subtelomeric location.