Regulation of the turnover of complex I (CI), the largest mitochondrial respiratory chain complex, remains enigmatic despite huge advancement in understanding its structure and the assembly. Here, we report that the NADH-oxidizing N-module of CI is turned over at a higher rate and largely independently of the rest of the complex by mitochondrial matrix protease ClpXP, which selectively removes and degrades damaged subunits. The observed mechanism seems to be a safeguard against the accumulation of dysfunctional CI arising from the inactivation of the N-module subunits due to attrition caused by its constant activity under physiological conditions. This CI salvage pathway maintains highly functional CI through a favorable mechanism that demands much lower energetic cost than de novo synthesis and reassembly of the entire CI. Our results also identify ClpXP activity as an unforeseen target for therapeutic interventions in the large group of mitochondrial diseases characterized by the CI instability.
Here we identified a hydrophobic 6.4kDa protein, Cox26, as a novel component of yeast mitochondrial supercomplex comprising respiratory complexes III and IV. Multi-dimensional native and denaturing electrophoretic techniques were used to identify proteins interacting with Cox26. The majority of the Cox26 protein was found non-covalently bound to the complex IV moiety of the III-IV supercomplexes. A population of Cox26 was observed to exist in a disulfide bond partnership with the Cox2 subunit of complex IV. No pronounced growth phenotype for Cox26 deficiency was observed, indicating that Cox26 may not play a critical role in the COX enzymology, and we speculate that Cox26 may serve to regulate or support the Cox2 protein. Respiratory supercomplexes are assembled in the absence of the Cox26 protein, however their pattern slightly differs to the wild type III-IV supercomplex appearance. The catalytic activities of complexes III and IV were observed to be normal and respiration was comparable to wild type as long as cells were cultivated under normal growth conditions. Stress conditions, such as elevated temperatures resulted in mild decrease of respiration in non-fermentative media when the Cox26 protein was absent.
Heart failure is the most common cause of morbidity and hospitalization in the western civilization. Protein phosphatases play a key role in the basal cardiac contractility and in the responses to β-adrenergic stimulation with type-1 phosphatase (PP-1) being major contributor. We propose here that formation of transient disulfide bridges in PP-1α might play a leading role in oxidative stress response. First, we established an optimized workflow, the so-called “cross-over-read” search method, for the identification of disulfide-linked species using permutated databases. By applying this method, we demonstrate the formation of unexpected transient disulfides in PP-1α to shelter against over-oxidation. This protection mechanism strongly depends on the fast response in the presence of reduced glutathione. Our work points out that the dimerization of PP-1α involving Cys39 and Cys127 is presumably important for the protection of PP-1α active surface in the absence of a substrate. We finally give insight into the electron transport from the PP-1α catalytic core to the surface. Our data suggest that the formation of transient disulfides might be a general mechanism of proteins to escape from irreversible cysteine oxidation and to prevent their complete inactivation.
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