Selective permeability of rat liver mitochondria to purified aspartate aminotransferases in vitro

1. A method was devised to allow determination of intramitochondrial aspartate amino-transferase activity in suspensions of intact mitochondria. 2. Addition of purified rat liver mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase to suspensions of rat liver mitochondria caused an apparent increase in the intramitochondrial enzyme activity. No increase was observed when the mitochondria were preincubated with the purified cytoplasmic isoenzyme. 3. These results suggest that mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase, but not the cytoplasmic isoenzyme, is able to pass from solution into the matrix of intact rat liver mitochondria in vitro. 4. This system may provide a model for studies of the little-understood processes by which cytoplasmically synthesized components are incorporated into mitochondria in vivo.

Contemporaneous isolation of deoxyribonucleic acid-dependent ribonucleic acid polymerase and poly(A) polymerase from rat liver mitochondria

1. Poly(A) polymerase and DNA-dependent RNA polymerase from rat liver mitochondria can be completely separated by using two different chromatographic procedures. 2. Poly(A) polymerase can only incorporate ATP into acid-insoluble material and strongly depends on the addition of an endogenous factor (probably containing a mixture of oligoribonucleotides), but it is not stimulated by DNA. 3. RNA polymerase is fully DNA-dependent and rifampicin-sensitive, but was not stimulated by the endogenous factor mentioned above. 4. The chromatographic behaviour of the two enzymes, together with the properties described, suggest that they represent two different protein molecules.

Effects of triiodothyronine on rat-liver mitochondrial transcription process

1. In order to demonstrate that triiodothyronine affects mitochondrial RNA synthesis by acting on the enzyme component of the DNA. RNA polymerase complex, mitochondrial RNA polymerase from thyroidectomized and hormone-treated rats was purified up to a stage in which activity was dependent on the addition of exogenous template. In these conditions and using different DNAs as templates, the enzyme from hormone-treated animals displayed an activity about double that of the activity of thyroidectomized animals. 2. Measurements of stability of mitochondrial RNA synthesized in vitro suggest, however, that the hormone can act also at the template level in mitochondrial transcription: the RNA population synthesized in vitro from hormone-treated rats is indeed much more enriched in unstable, probably messenger, RNA species. 3. The turnover of mitochondrial messenger RNA is higher after hormone treatment. 4. Adenosine cyclic 3':5'-monophosphate (cAMP) and its dibutyryl derivative added in vitro to mitochondria from thyroidectomized animals do not affect the incorporation of labeled precursor into mitochondrial RNA, suggesting that the level of the cyclic nucleotide in mitochondria is probably not involved in the hormone action. 5. It is concluded from these and previous studies that the thyroid hormone affects more than one parameter in the mitochondrial transcription process. The interrelationship between these events at molecular level remains, however, to be clarified.

Inhibition of protein synthesis by ricin: experiments with rat liver mitochondria and nuclei and with ribosomes from Escherichia coli

1. Ricin, a toxic protein from the seeds of Ricinus communis which inhibits poly(U)-directed polyphenylalanine synthesis by rat liver ribosomes (Montanaro et al., 1973), does not affect protein synthesis by isolated rat liver mitochondria. 2. The toxin is ineffective also on poly(U)-directed polyphenylalanine synthesis in reconstituted systems with ribosomes isolated from rat liver mitochondria or from Escherichia coli. 3. Ricin inhibits protein synthesis by isolated rat liver nuclei, but at concentrations much higher than those affecting rat liver ribosomes.