This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Delage, L.
Right arrow Articles by Maréchal-Drouard, L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Delage, L.
Right arrow Articles by Maréchal-Drouard, L.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Molecular and Cellular Biology, June 2003, p. 4000-4012, Vol. 23, No. 11
0270-7306/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/MCB.23.11.4000-4012.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

In Vitro Import of a Nuclearly Encoded tRNA into Mitochondria of Solanum tuberosum

Ludovic Delage,{dagger} André Dietrich, Anne Cosset, and Laurence Maréchal-Drouard*

Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes, UPR 2357 CNRS, Université Louis Pasteur, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France

Received 13 January 2003/ Accepted 14 March 2003

Some of the mitochondrial tRNAs of higher plants are nuclearly encoded and imported into mitochondria. The import of tRNAs encoded in the nucleus has been shown to be essential for proper protein translation within mitochondria of a variety of organisms. Here, we report the development of an in vitro assay for import of nuclearly encoded tRNAs into plant mitochondria. This in vitro system utilizes isolated mitochondria from Solanum tuberosum and synthetic tRNAs transcribed from cloned nuclear tRNA genes. Although incubation of radioactively labeled in vitro-transcribed tRNAAla, tRNAPhe, and tRNAMet-e with isolated potato mitochondria resulted in importation, as measured by nuclease protection, the amount of tRNA transcripts protected at saturation was at least five times higher for tRNAAla than for the two other tRNAs. This difference in in vitro saturation levels of import is consistent with the in vivo localization of these tRNAs, since cytosolic tRNAAla is naturally imported into potato mitochondria whereas tRNAPhe and tRNAMet-e are not. Characterization of in vitro tRNA import requirements indicates that mitochondrial tRNA import proceeds in the absence of any added cytosolic protein fraction, involves at least one protein component on the surface of mitochondria, and requires ATP-dependent step(s) and a membrane potential.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes du CNRS, 12 rue du Général Zimmer, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France. Phone: (33) 3 88 41 72 44. Fax: (33) 3 88 61 44 42. E-mail: laurence.drouard{at}ibmp-ulp.u-strasbg.fr.

{dagger} Present address: Station Biologique, UMR 1931 CNRS, 29680 Roscoff Cedex, France.


Molecular and Cellular Biology, June 2003, p. 4000-4012, Vol. 23, No. 11
0022-538X/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/MCB.23.11.4000-4012.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.




This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Rubio, M. A. T., Rinehart, J. J., Krett, B., Duvezin-Caubet, S., Reichert, A. S., Soll, D., Alfonzo, J. D. (2008). Mammalian mitochondria have the innate ability to import tRNAs by a mechanism distinct from protein import. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105: 9186-9191 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Basu, S., Mukherjee, S., Adhya, S. (2008). Proton-guided movements of tRNA within the Leishmania mitochondrial RNA import complex. Nucleic Acids Res 36: 1599-1609 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Podsiadlowski, L., Braband, A., Mayer, G. (2008). The Complete Mitochondrial Genome of the Onychophoran Epiperipatus biolleyi Reveals a Unique Transfer RNA Set and Provides Further Support for the Ecdysozoa Hypothesis. Mol Biol Evol 25: 42-51 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Salinas, T., Duchene, A.-M., Delage, L., Nilsson, S., Glaser, E., Zaepfel, M., Marechal-Drouard, L. (2006). The voltage-dependent anion channel, a major component of the tRNA import machinery in plant mitochondria. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103: 18362-18367 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Goswami, S., Adhya, S. (2006). The {alpha}-Subunit of Leishmania F1 ATP Synthase Hydrolyzes ATP in Presence of tRNA. J. Biol. Chem. 281: 18914-18917 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Entelis, N., Brandina, I., Kamenski, P., Krasheninnikov, I. A., Martin, R. P., Tarassov, I. (2006). A glycolytic enzyme, enolase, is recruited as a cofactor of tRNA targeting toward mitochondria in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genes Dev. 20: 1609-1620 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Rinehart, J., Krett, B., Rubio, M. A. T., Alfonzo, J. D., Soll, D. (2005). Saccharomyces cerevisiae imports the cytosolic pathway for Gln-tRNA synthesis into the mitochondrion. Genes Dev. 19: 583-592 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Kolesnikova, O. A., Entelis, N. S., Jacquin-Becker, C., Goltzene, F., Chrzanowska-Lightowlers, Z. M., Lightowlers, R. N., Martin, R. P., Tarassov, I. (2004). Nuclear DNA-encoded tRNAs targeted into mitochondria can rescue a mitochondrial DNA mutation associated with the MERRF syndrome in cultured human cells. Hum Mol Genet 13: 2519-2534 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Goswami, S., Chatterjee, S., Bhattacharyya, S. N., Basu, S., Adhya, S. (2003). Allosteric regulation of tRNA import: interactions between tRNA domains at the inner membrane of Leishmania mitochondria. Nucleic Acids Res 31: 5552-5559 [Abstract] [Full Text]