Structure and Biogenesis of Membrane Proteins

Abstract: Membrane proteins make up about one-third of the cellular proteome. The diverse roles that membrane proteins have in cells include major life-sustaining processes, making them major drug targets. The respiratory chain comprises a series of complexes of membrane proteins residing in the inner mitochondrial membrane, which serve as major drivers of ATP synthesis. Assembly of the respiratory chain complexes (RCC) requires coordinated synthesis of nuclear and mitochondrial subunits. Cbp3-Cbp6 complex binds to the mitoribosome as translational activator for cytochrome b synthesis and binds the nascent polypeptide to facilitate its hemylation. Cbp3 consists of an N-terminal domain specific to mitochondrial homologues and a conserved C-terminal ubiquinol-cytochrome c chaperone domain. In this thesis I present the first crystal structure of the C-terminal domain from a bacterial homologue that has enabled us to identify the interaction sites of yeast Cbp3 with Cbp6 and cytochrome b using site-specific photo-crosslinking. Our finding suggests that Cbp3 contacts the mitoribosome via the N-terminal domain in a manner that positions the substrate binding site close to the tunnel exit. In the second project, we have analyzed the effects of disease causing cytochrome b mutations, on bc1 complex assembly. We found that complex III assembly is blocked at either intermediate 0 or I due to impaired insertion of bL or bH heme respectively, which indicates that assembly processes are involved in disease development. We then focused on NADH; a product of alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex (KGDH) catalyzed citric acid cycle reaction and one of the substrates that supply electron to the respiratory chain. Kgd4 is a novel subunit of this enzyme complex and two functional variants (Kgd4S and Kgd4L) of unknown origins exist in yeast. We report in our work that Kgd4L originates from a UUG alternative start site, 90 nucleotides upstream and in frame of the annotated start codon. The sequence context upstream of UUG determines the efficiency of recognition of this alternative start codon. Finally, Na+/H+ antiporters are present in all species and are involved in regulation of intracellular pH, cell volume and sodium concentration. ATP formed during oxidative phosphorylation serves as energy source for Na+/K+ ATPase to generate Na+ gradient across the inner mitochondrial membrane, which drives local Na+/H+ antiporters. We show that K305 is involved in proton transport and responsible for the electrogenicity of NapA, while human NHA2 shows electroneutral antiporter activity.