Search

Radiolabel from [3H]myristic acid was incorporated by Neurospora crassa into the core catalytic subunit 1 of cytochrome c oxidase (EC 1.9.3.1), as indicated by immunoprecipitation. This modification of the subunit, which was specific for myristic acid, represents an uncommon type of myristoylation through an amide linkage at an internal lysine, rather than an N-terminal glycine. The [3H]myristate, which was chemically recovered from the radiolabeled subunit peptide, modified an invariant Lys-324, based upon analyses of proteolysis products. This myristoylated lysine is found within one of the predicted transmembrane helices of subunit 1 and could contribute to the environment of the active site of the enzyme. The myristate was identified by mass spectrometry as a component of mature subunit 1 of a catalytically active, purified enzyme. To our knowledge, fatty acylation of a mitochondrially synthesized inner-membrane protein has not been reported previously.

The alpha-crystallin-related heat shock proteins are produced by all eukaryotes, but the role of these proteins in thermoprotection remains unclear. To investigate the function of one of these proteins, we disrupted expression of the single-copy hsp30 gene of Neurospora crassa, using repeat-induced point mutagenesis, and we generated and characterized mutant strains that were deficient in hsp30 synthesis. These strains could grow at high temperature and they acquired thermotolerance from a heat shock. However, the hsp30-defective strains proved to be extremely sensitive to the combined stresses of high temperature and carbohydrate limitation, enforced by the addition of a nonmetabolizable glucose analogue. Under these conditions, their survival was reduced by 90% compared with wild-type cells. This sensitive phenotype was reversed by reintroduction of a functional hsp30 gene into the mutant strains. The mutant cells contained mitochondria from which a 22-kDa protein was readily extracted with detergents, in contrast to its retention by the mitochondria of wild-type cells. Antibodies against hsp30 coimmunoprecipitated a protein also of approximately 22 kDa from wild-type cells. Results of this study suggest that hsp30 may be important for efficient carbohydrate utilization during high temperature stress and that it may interact with other mitochondrial membrane proteins and function as a protein chaperone.

One polypeptide subunit of cytochrome c oxidase (EC 1.9.3.1) and two subunits of the ATPase/ATP synthase (EC 3.6.1.34) in mitochondria of Neurospora crassa are covalently modified with a derivative of pantothenic acid. In asexual spores of a pantothenate auxotroph of Neurospora, deprivation of pantothenic acid blocked the increase of the specific activities of cytochrome c oxidase and the ATPase above the basal activities in the dormant spores. Under cellular panthothenate deprivation, all the subunit peptides of these two enzymes apparently were synthesized and accumulated in the mitochondria, but these subunits were not assembled into normal complexes, and 55Fe-labeled heme a was incorporated into immunoprecipitable cytochrome c oxidase to a very low extent. In pantothenate-supplemented cells, the pantothenate derivative apparently is attached to the free unassembled subunits and appears not to be present in the assembled enzymes. It is likely that cellular deprivation of pantothenate, resulting in failure to modify the three subunit peptides, causes an interruption of the assembly pathway of cytochrome c oxidase and the ATPase/ATP synthase.