Mammalian Oxa1 protein is useful for assessment of submitochondrial protein localization and mitochondrial membrane integrity

Progress in pH-Sensitive sensors: essential tools for organelle pH detection, spotlighting mitochondrion and diverse applications

pH-sensitive fluorescent proteins have revolutionized the field of cellular imaging and physiology, offering insight into the dynamic pH changes that underlie fundamental cellular processes. This comprehensive review explores the diverse applications and recent advances in the use of pH-sensitive fluorescent proteins. These remarkable tools enable researchers to visualize and monitor pH variations within subcellular compartments, especially mitochondria, shedding light on organelle-specific pH regulation. They play pivotal roles in visualizing exocytosis and endocytosis events in synaptic transmission, monitoring cell death and apoptosis, and understanding drug effects and disease progression. Recent advancements have led to improved photostability, pH specificity, and subcellular targeting, enhancing their utility. Techniques for multiplexed imaging, three-dimensional visualization, and super-resolution microscopy are expanding the horizon of pH-sensitive protein applications. The future holds promise for their integration into optogenetics and drug discovery. With their ever-evolving capabilities, pH-sensitive fluorescent proteins remain indispensable tools for unravelling cellular dynamics and driving breakthroughs in biological research. This review serves as a comprehensive resource for researchers seeking to harness the potential of pH-sensitive fluorescent proteins.

Aim18p and Aim46p are chalcone isomerase domain-containing mitochondrial hemoproteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Chalcone isomerases (CHIs) have well-established roles in the biosynthesis of plant flavonoid metabolites. Saccharomyces cerevisiae possesses two predicted CHI-like proteins, Aim18p (encoded by YHR198C) and Aim46p (YHR199C), but it lacks other enzymes of the flavonoid pathway, suggesting that Aim18p and Aim46p employ the CHI fold for distinct purposes. Here, we demonstrate using proteinase K protection assays, sodium carbonate extractions, and crystallography that Aim18p and Aim46p reside on the mitochondrial inner membrane and adopt CHI folds, but they lack select active site residues and possess an extra fungal-specific loop. Consistent with these differences, Aim18p and Aim46p lack CHI activity and also the fatty acid-binding capabilities of other CHI-like proteins, but instead bind heme. We further show that diverse fungal homologs also bind heme and that Aim18p and Aim46p possess structural homology to a bacterial hemoprotein. Collectively, our work reveals a distinct function and cellular localization for two CHI-like proteins, introduces a new variation of a hemoprotein fold, and suggests that ancestral CHI-like proteins were hemoproteins.

Quantitative proteomics revealed C6orf203/MTRES1 as a factor preventing stress-induced transcription deficiency in human mitochondria

Maintenance of mitochondrial gene expression is crucial for cellular homeostasis. Stress conditions may lead to a temporary reduction of mitochondrial genome copy number, raising the risk of insufficient expression of mitochondrial encoded genes. Little is known how compensatory mechanisms operate to maintain proper mitochondrial transcripts levels upon disturbed transcription and which proteins are involved in them. Here we performed a quantitative proteomic screen to search for proteins that sustain expression of mtDNA under stress conditions. Analysis of stress-induced changes of the human mitochondrial proteome led to the identification of several proteins with poorly defined functions among which we focused on C6orf203, which we named MTRES1 (Mitochondrial Transcription Rescue Factor 1). We found that the level of MTRES1 is elevated in cells under stress and we show that this upregulation of MTRES1 prevents mitochondrial transcript loss under perturbed mitochondrial gene expression. This protective effect depends on the RNA binding activity of MTRES1. Functional analysis revealed that MTRES1 associates with mitochondrial RNA polymerase POLRMT and acts by increasing mitochondrial transcription, without changing the stability of mitochondrial RNAs. We propose that MTRES1 is an example of a protein that protects the cell from mitochondrial RNA loss during stress.

Analysis of the structure and function of EMRE in a yeast expression system

The mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) complex is a highly-selective calcium channel, and this complex is believed to consist of a pore-forming subunit, MCU, and its regulatory subunits. As yeast cells lack orthologues of the mammalian proteins, the yeast expression system for the mammalian calcium uniporter subunits is useful for investigating their functions. We here established a yeast expression system for the native-form mouse MCU and 4 other subunits. This expression system enabled us to precisely reconstitute the properties of the mammalian MCU complex in yeast mitochondria. Using this expression system, we analyzed the essential MCU regulator (EMRE), which is a key subunit for Ca(2+) uptake but whose functions and structure remain unclear. The topology of EMRE was revealed: its N- and C-termini projected into the matrix and the inter membrane space, respectively. The expression of EMRE alone was insufficient for Ca(2+) uptake; and co-expression of MCU with EMRE was necessary. EMRE was independent of the protein levels of other subunits, indicating that EMRE was not a protein-stabilizing factor. Deletion of acidic amino acids conserved in EMRE did not significantly affect Ca(2+) uptake; thus, EMRE did not have basic properties of ion channels such as ion-selectivity filtration and ion concentration. Meanwhile, EMRE closely interacted with the MCU on both sides of the inner membrane, and this interaction was essential for Ca(2+) uptake. This close interaction suggested that EMRE might be a structural factor for opening of the MCU-forming pore.

EMRE Is a Matrix Ca(2+) Sensor that Governs Gatekeeping of the Mitochondrial Ca(2+) Uniporter

The mitochondrial uniporter (MCU) is an ion channel that mediates Ca(2+) uptake into the matrix to regulate metabolism, cell death, and cytoplasmic Ca(2+) signaling. Matrix Ca(2+) concentration is similar to that in cytoplasm, despite an enormous driving force for entry, but the mechanisms that prevent mitochondrial Ca(2+) overload are unclear. Here, we show that MCU channel activity is governed by matrix Ca(2+) concentration through EMRE. Deletion or charge neutralization of its matrix-localized acidic C terminus abolishes matrix Ca(2+) inhibition of MCU Ca(2+) currents, resulting in MCU channel activation, enhanced mitochondrial Ca(2+) uptake, and constitutively elevated matrix Ca(2+) concentration. EMRE-dependent regulation of MCU channel activity requires intermembrane space-localized MICU1, MICU2, and cytoplasmic Ca(2+). Thus, mitochondria are protected from Ca(2+) depletion and Ca(2+) overload by a unique molecular complex that involves Ca(2+) sensors on both sides of the inner mitochondrial membrane, coupled through EMRE.

MICU1 controls both the threshold and cooperative activation of the mitochondrial Ca²⁺ uniporter

Mitochondrial Ca(2+) uptake via the uniporter is central to cell metabolism, signaling, and survival. Recent studies identified MCU as the uniporter's likely pore and MICU1, an EF-hand protein, as its critical regulator. How this complex decodes dynamic cytoplasmic [Ca(2+)] ([Ca(2+)]c) signals, to tune out small [Ca(2+)]c increases yet permit pulse transmission, remains unknown. We report that loss of MICU1 in mouse liver and cultured cells causes mitochondrial Ca(2+) accumulation during small [Ca(2+)]c elevations but an attenuated response to agonist-induced [Ca(2+)]c pulses. The latter reflects loss of positive cooperativity, likely via the EF-hands. MICU1 faces the intermembrane space and responds to [Ca(2+)]c changes. Prolonged MICU1 loss leads to an adaptive increase in matrix Ca(2+) binding, yet cells show impaired oxidative metabolism and sensitization to Ca(2+) overload. Collectively, the data indicate that MICU1 senses the [Ca(2+)]c to establish the uniporter's threshold and gain, thereby allowing mitochondria to properly decode different inputs.

Human telomerase acts as a hTR-independent reverse transcriptase in mitochondria

Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is localized to mitochondria, as well as the nucleus, but details about its biology and function in the organelle remain largely unknown. Here we show, using multiple approaches, that mammalian TERT is mitochondrial, co-purifying with mitochondrial nucleoids and tRNAs. We demonstrate the canonical nuclear RNA [human telomerase RNA (hTR)] is not present in human mitochondria and not required for the mitochondrial effects of telomerase, which nevertheless rely on reverse transcriptase (RT) activity. Using RNA immunoprecipitations from whole cell and in organello, we show that hTERT binds various mitochondrial RNAs, suggesting that RT activity in the organelle is reconstituted with mitochondrial RNAs. In support of this conclusion, TERT drives first strand cDNA synthesis in vitro in the absence of hTR. Finally, we demonstrate that absence of hTERT specifically in mitochondria with maintenance of its nuclear function negatively impacts the organelle. Our data indicate that mitochondrial hTERT works as a hTR-independent reverse transcriptase, and highlight that nuclear and mitochondrial telomerases have different cellular functions. The implications of these findings to both the mitochondrial and telomerase fields are discussed.