Cecropins A and P1, antibacterial peptides from insects and from pig and some related peptides released respiratory control, inhibited protein import and at higher concentrations also inhibited respiration. However, PR-39, an antibacterial peptide from pig intestine, was found to be almost inert towards mitochondria. The concentrations at which the three mitochondrial functions were effected varied for different peptides. Melittin, magainin and Cecropin-A-(1,13) -Melittin(l,l3)-NH2, a hybrid between cecropin A and melittin, were most potent, while the two cecropins acted at higher concentrations. The biosynthesis of cecropin A is known and the intermediates are synthesized. We have used four peptides from this pathway to investigate their effects on coupling, respiration and protein import into mitochondria. Mature cecropin A followed by the preproprotein were most aggressive whereas the intermediates were less active or inert. The efficiency of different derivatives of cecropin A as uncouplers correlates well with their capacity to release membrane potential measured as fluorescence quenching of Rhodamine 123. Inhibition of respiration was found to be dependent on membrane potential and was most pronounced with mature cecropin A, less so with its three precursors. We also found that three peptides derived from mitochondrial presequences showed antibacterial activity. It is concluded that, there are similarities in the functions of antibacterial peptides and mitochondrial presequences, uncoupling activity in mitochondria cannot be correlated with the antibacterial activity (contrary to a previous suggestion), the processing of preprocecropin A may have evolved in such a way that there is a minimum of membrane damage from the intermediates in the pathway, and peptides produced for delivery outside of an animal have evolved to be more aggressive against mitochondria than peptides for delivery inside of the animal.During the last 13 years several classes of broadspectrum antibacterial peptides have been discovered in the animal kingdom, among them cecropins, defensins and magainins (reviewed by Boman, 1991 ;Zasloff, 1992). These three groups of peptides are well characterized, they have been cloned, their three-dimensional structures are known and for cecropins and defensins the gene structures have been determined. All three groups of peptides also form channels in artificial membranes but it is not yet known if channel formation is responsible for the lethal activity on bacteria. There are clear structural similarities between certain antiCorrespondence to E. Glaser,

Import of the synthetic precursor of the alternative oxidase from soybean was shown to be dependent on a membrane potential and ATP. The membrane potential in soybean mitochondria may be formed either by respiration through the cytochrome pathway, or through the alternative oxidase pathway with NAD(+)-linked substrates. Import of the alternative oxidase precursor in the presence of succinate as respiratory substrate was inhibited by KCN. Import in the presence of malate was insensitive to KCN and SHAM added separately, but was inhibited by KCN and SHAM added together (inhibitors of the cytochrome and alternative oxidases respectively). Import of the alternative oxidase was accompanied by processing of the precursor to a single 32 kDa product in both cotyledon and root mitochondria. This product had a different mobility than the two alternative oxidase bands detected by immunological means (34 and 36 kDa), suggesting that the enzyme had been modified in situ. When the cDNA clone of the alternative oxidase was modified by a single mutation (-2 Arg changed to -2 Gly), the processing of the precursor was inhibited.

In this study we report the first comparison of the mitochondrial protein import and processing events in two different tissues from the same organism. Both spinach leaf and root mitochondria were able to import and process the in vitro transcribed and translated Neurospora crassa F1 beta subunit of ATP synthase to the mature size product. Temperature optimum for protein import, 20 degrees C, was considerably lower than that found in other systems. In spinach leaf mitochondria, the processing peptidase has been shown to constitute an integral part of the bc1 complex of the respiratory chain. In accordance with these results, the majority of the processing activity in root mitochondria was also localized in the membrane. However, although the same amount of the processing peptidase was present per mg of membrane protein in both leaf and root mitochondria, as determined immunologically, the specific processing activity was several-fold higher in roots. Furthermore, in contrast to the processing enzyme in leaf, a portion of the processing activity could be disassociated from the root membrane with relatively weak salt treatment. The processing event in both the leaf and root membranes was always accompanied by a degradation of the F1 beta precursor. The degradation activity was found to be several-fold higher in roots than in leaves and was also partially dissociated from the membrane after salt treatment. Both the processing and degradation activities were inhibited by orthophenanthroline, a known metalloprotease inhibitor. These results show tissue-specific differences of the processing event catalyzed by the bc1 complex and indicate the presence of two populations of the processing peptidase in root mitochondria.

It has previously been shown that presequences of nuclear-encoded chloroplast proteins from the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii contain a region that may form an amphiphilic alpha-helix, a structure characteristic of mitochondrial presequences. We have tested two precursors of chloroplast proteins (the PsaF and PsaK photosystem I subunits) from C. reinhardtii for the ability to be imported into spinach leaf mitochondria in vitro. Both precursors bound to spinach mitochondria. The PsaF protein was converted into a protease-protected form with high efficiency in a membrane potential-dependent manner, indicating that the protein had been imported, whereas the PsaK protein was not protease protected. The protease protection of PsaF was not inhibited by a synthetic peptide derived from the presequence of the N. plumbaginifolia mitochondrial F1 beta subunit. Furthermore, if the presequence of PsaF was truncated or deleted by in vitro mutagenesis, the protein was still protease-protected with approximately the same efficiency as the full-length precursor. These results indicate that PsaF can be imported by spinach mitochondria in a presequence-independent manner. However, even in the absence of the presequence, this process was membrane potential-dependent. Interestingly, the presequence-truncated PsaF proteins were also protease-protected upon incubation with C. reinhardtii chloroplasts. Our results indicate that the C. reinhardtii chloroplast PsaF protein has peculiar properties and may be imported not only into chloroplasts but also into higher-plant mitochondria. This finding indicates that additional control mechanisms in the cytosol that are independent of the presequence are required to achieve sorting between chloroplasts and mitochondria in vivo.

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