Thomas D. Fox

The mitochondrion is arguably the most complex organelle in the budding yeast cell cytoplasm. It is essential for viability as well as respiratory growth. Its innermost aqueous compartment, the matrix, is bounded by the highly structured inner membrane, which in turn is bounded by the intermembrane space and the outer membrane. Approximately 1000 proteins are present in these organelles, of which eight major constituents are coded and synthesized in the matrix. The import of mitochondrial proteins synthesized in the cytoplasm, and their direction to the correct soluble compartments, correct membranes, and correct membrane surfaces/topologies, involves multiple pathways and macromolecular machines. The targeting of some, but not all, cytoplasmically synthesized mitochondrial proteins begins with translation of messenger RNAs localized to the organelle. Most proteins then pass through the translocase of the outer membrane to the intermembrane space, where divergent pathways sort them to the outer membrane, inner membrane, and matrix or trap them in the intermembrane space. Roughly 25% of mitochondrial proteins participate in maintenance or expression of the organellar genome at the inner surface of the inner membrane, providing 7 membrane proteins whose synthesis nucleates the assembly of three respiratory complexes.

The Cox2 subunit of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cytochrome c oxidase is synthesized in the mitochondrial matrix as a precursor whose leader peptide is rapidly processed by the inner membrane protease following translocation to the intermembrane space. Processing is chaperoned by Cox20, an integral inner membrane protein whose hydrophilic domains are located in the intermembrane space, and Cox20 remains associated with mature, unassembled Cox2. The Cox2 C-tail domain is exported post-translationally by the highly conserved translocase Cox18 and associated proteins. We have found that Cox20 is required for efficient export of the Cox2 C-tail. Furthermore, Cox20 interacts by co-immune precipitation with Cox18, and this interaction requires the presence of Cox2. We therefore propose that Cox20 binding to Cox2 on the trans side of the inner membrane accelerates dissociation of newly exported Cox2 from the Cox18 translocase, promoting efficient cycling of the translocase. The requirement for Cox20 in cytochrome c oxidase assembly and respiratory growth is partially bypassed by yme1, mgr1 or mgr3 mutations, each of which reduce i-AAA protease activity in the intermembrane space. Thus, Cox20 also appears to stabilize unassembled Cox2 against degradation by the i-AAA protease. Pre-Cox2 leader peptide processing by Imp1 occurs in the absence of Cox20 and i-AAA protease activity, but is greatly reduced in efficiency. Under these conditions some mature Cox2 is assembled into cytochrome c oxidase allowing weak respiratory growth. Thus, the Cox20 chaperone has important roles in leader peptide processing, C-tail export, and stabilization of Cox2.

Respiratory chain subunits are made up of proteins encoded by nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, which assemble to form functional enzymes. New findings reveal that the mitochondrial translation of Cox1, the core component of cytochromecoxidase, is directly coupled to the assembly of this respiratory complex. Mitochondria maintain genome and translation machinery to synthesize a small subset of subunits of the oxidative phosphorylation system. To build up functional enzymes, these organellar gene products must assemble with imported subunits that are encoded in the nucleus. New findings on the early steps of cytochrome c oxidase assembly reveal how the mitochondrial translation of its core component, cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (Cox1), is directly coupled to the assembly of this respiratory complex.

In eukaryotes, fumarase (FH in human) is a well-known tricarboxylic-acid-cycle enzyme in the mitochondrial matrix. However, conserved from yeast to humans is a cytosolic isoenzyme of fumarase whose function in this compartment remains obscure. A few years ago, FH was surprisingly shown to underlie a tumor susceptibility syndrome, Hereditary Leiomyomatosis and Renal Cell Cancer (HLRCC). A biallelic inactivation of FH has been detected in almost all HLRCC tumors, and therefore FH was suggested to function as a tumor suppressor. Recently it was suggested that FH inhibition leads to elevated intracellular fumarate, which in turn acts as a competitive inhibitor of HPH (HIF prolyl hydroxylase), thereby causing stabilization of HIF (Hypoxia-inducible factor) by preventing proteasomal degradation. The transcription factor HIF increases the expression of angiogenesis regulated genes, such as VEGF, which can lead to high microvessel density and tumorigenesis. Yet this mechanism does not fully explain the large cytosolic population of fumarase molecules. We constructed a yeast strain in which fumarase is localized exclusively to mitochondria. This led to the discovery that the yeast cytosolic fumarase plays a key role in the protection of cells from DNA damage, particularly from DNA double-strand breaks. We show that the cytosolic fumarase is a member of the DNA damage response that is recruited from the cytosol to the nucleus upon DNA damage induction. This function of fumarase depends on its enzymatic activity, and its absence in cells can be complemented by high concentrations of fumaric acid. Our findings suggest that fumarase and fumaric acid are critical elements of the DNA damage response, which underlies the tumor suppressor role of fumarase in human cells and which is most probably HIF independent. This study shows an exciting crosstalk between primary metabolism and the DNA damage response, thereby providing a scenario for metabolic control of tumor propagation. Fumarate hydratase (FH; also known as fumarase) is an enzyme found in both the cytoplasm and mitochondria of all eukaryotes. In mitochondria, FH is involved in generating energy for the cell through a metabolic pathway called the Krebs cycle. Its role in the cytoplasm, however, is unclear. FH can function as a tumor suppressor: its absence is linked to the formation of human kidney tumors in a syndrome termed HLRCC. We show here that the cytoplasmic version of FH has an unexpected role in repairing DNA double-strand breaks in the nucleus. This role involves the movement of FH from the cytoplasm into the nucleus and depends on its enzymatic activity. Strikingly, when FH is absent from cells, its function in DNA repair can be substituted by high concentrations of one of the enzyme's products, fumaric acid. Our findings imply that FH deficiency leads to cancer because there is not enough fumaric acid in the nucleus to stimulate repair of DNA double-strand breaks; the persistence of these breaks is believed to provoke cancer. The study thus makes a surprising connection between primary metabolism and the cell's response to DNA damage.

Functional interactions of the translational activator Mss51 with both the mitochondrially encoded COX1 mRNA 5′-untranslated region and with newly synthesized unassembled Cox1 protein suggest that it has a key role in coupling Cox1 synthesis with assembly of cytochrome c oxidase. Mss51 is present at levels that are near rate limiting for expression of a reporter gene inserted at COX1 in mitochondrial DNA, and a substantial fraction of Mss51 is associated with Cox1 protein in assembly intermediates. Thus, sequestration of Mss51 in assembly intermediates could limit Cox1 synthesis in wild type, and account for the reduced Cox1 synthesis caused by most yeast mutations that block assembly. Mss51 does not stably interact with newly synthesized Cox1 in a mutant lacking Cox14, suggesting that the failure of nuclear cox14 mutants to decrease Cox1 synthesis, despite their inability to assemble cytochrome c oxidase, is due to a failure to sequester Mss51. The physical interaction between Mss51 and Cox14 is dependent upon Cox1 synthesis, indicating dynamic assembly of early cytochrome c oxidase intermediates nucleated by Cox1. Regulation of COX1 mRNA translation by Mss51 seems to be an example of a homeostatic mechanism in which a positive effector of gene expression interacts with the product it regulates in a posttranslational assembly process.

Members of the Oxa1/YidC/Alb3 family of protein translocases are essential for assembly of energy-transducing membrane complexes. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Oxa1 and its paralog, Cox18, are required for assembly of Cox2, a mitochondrially encoded subunit of cytochrome c oxidase. Oxa1 is known to be required for cotranslational export of the Cox2 N-terminal domain across the inner mitochondrial membrane, while Cox18 is known to be required for post-translational export of the Cox2 C-tail domain. We find that overexpression of Oxa1 does not compensate for the absence of Cox18 at the level of respiratory growth. However, it does promote some translocation of the Cox2 C-tail domain across the inner membrane and causes increased accumulation of Cox2, which remains unassembled. This result suggests that Cox18 not only translocates the C-tail, but also must deliver it in a distinct state competent for cytochrome oxidase assembly. We identified respiring mutants from a cox18Δ strain overexpressing OXA1, whose respiratory growth requires overexpression of OXA1. The recessive nuclear mutations allow some assembly of Cox2 into cytochrome c oxidase. After failing to identify these mutations by methods based on transformation, we successfully located them to MGR1 and MGR3 by comparative hybridization to whole-genome tiling arrays and microarray-assisted bulk segregant analysis followed by linkage mapping. While Mgr1 and Mgr3 are known to associate with the Yme1 mitochondrial inner membrane i-AAA protease and to participate in membrane protein degradation, their absence does not appear to stabilize Cox2 under these conditions. Instead, Yme1 probably chaperones the folding and/or assembly of Oxa1-exported Cox2 in the absence of Mrg1 or Mgr3, since respiratory growth and cytochrome c oxidase assembly in a cox18 mgr3 double-mutant strain overexpressing OXA1 is YME1 dependent.