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Characterization of the expressed genes for subunit c of mitochondrial ATP synthase in sheep with ceroid lipofuscinosis.

ABSTRACT: The human and bovine genomes each contain two expressed nuclear genes, called P1 and P2, for subunit c, a hydrophobic subunit of the membrane sector, Fo, of mitochondrial ATP synthase. Both P1 and P2 encode the same mature protein, but the associated mitochondrial import sequences are different. In sheep with the neurodegenerative disease ceroid lipofuscinosis, and also in humans with Batten's disease, unmodified subunit c accumulates in lysosome-derived organelles in a variety of tissues. However, the sequences of cDNAs for P1 and P2 from sheep with ceroid lipofuscinosis were identical to those in healthy control animals. Therefore, since there was no mutation in either of the mitochondrial import sequences of subunit c in the diseased animals, ceroid lipofuscinosis does not arise from changes in an import sequence causing mis-targeting of the c subunit to lysosomes. The levels of expression of P1 and P2 genes were approximately the same in diseased and healthy animals, and so the protein is unlikely to accumulate because of excessive transcription of either gene. Transcription of a spliced pseudogene related to P2 was detected in both a control animal and a sheep with ceroid lipofuscinosis. The transcripts encode amino acids 1-31 of the P2 mitochondrial targeting sequence. In the diseased animal, an arginine replaced a glutamine in the control sequence. However, restriction fragment analysis of genomic DNA from a further 12 sheep established that the sequence differences were not linked to ceroid lipofuscinosis.

SUBMITTER: Medd SM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1134320 | biostudies-other | 1993 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:The ceroid lipofuscinoses are a group of neurodegenerative lysosomal storage diseases of children and animals that are recessively inherited. In diseased individuals fluorescent storage bodies accumulate in a wide variety of cells, including neurons. Previous studies of these bodies isolated from tissues of affected sheep confirmed that the storage occurs in lysosomes, and showed that the storage body is mostly made of a single protein with an apparent molecular mass of 3500 Da with an N-terminal amino acid sequence that is the same as residues 1-40 of the c-subunit (or dicyclohexylcarbodi-imide-reactive proteolipid) of mitochondrial ATP synthase. In the present work we have shown by direct analysis that the stored protein is identical in sequence with the entire c-subunit of mitochondrial ATP synthase, a very hydrophobic protein of 75 amino acid residues. As far as can be detected by the Edman degradation, the stored protein appears not to have been subject to any post-translational modification other than the correct removal of the mitochondrial import sequences that have been shown in other experiments to be present at the N-terminal of its two different precursors. No other protein accumulates in the storage bodies to any significant extent. Taken with studies of the cDNAs for the c-subunit in normal and diseased sheep, these results indicate that the material that is stored in lysosomes of diseased animals has probably entered mitochondria and has been subjected to the proteolytic processing that is associated with mitochondrial import. This implies that the defect that leads to the lysosomal accumulation concerns the degradative pathway of the c-subunit of ATP synthase. An alternative, but less likely, hypothesis is that for some unknown reason the precursors of subunit c are being directly mis-targeted to lysosomes, where they become processed to yield a protein identical with the protein that is normally found in the mitochondrial ATP synthase assembly, and which then accumulates.

Project description:New findingsWhat is the central question of this study? Humans with obesity have lower ATP synthesis in muscle along with lower content of the ?-subunit of the ATP synthase (?-F1-ATPase), the catalytic component of the ATP synthase. Does lower synthesis rate of ?-F1-ATPase in muscle contribute to these responses in humans with obesity? What is the main finding and its importance? Humans with obesity have a lower synthesis rate of ?-F1 -ATPase and ATP synthase specific activity in muscle. These findings indicate that reduced production of subunits forming the ATP synthase in muscle may contribute to impaired generation of ATP in obesity.AbstractThe content of the ?-subunit of the ATP synthase (?-F1 -ATPase), which forms the catalytic site of the enzyme ATP synthase, is reduced in muscle of obese humans, along with a reduced capacity for ATP synthesis. We studied 18 young (37 ± 8 years) subjects of which nine were lean (BMI = 23 ± 2 kg m-2 ) and nine were obese (BMI = 34 ± 3 kg m-2 ) to determine the fractional synthesis rate (FSR) and gene expression of ?-F1 -ATPase, as well as the specific activity of the ATP synthase. FSR of ?-F1 -ATPase was determined using a combination of isotope tracer infusion and muscle biopsies. Gene expression of ?-F1 -ATPase and specific activity of the ATP synthase were determined in the muscle biopsies. When compared to lean, obese subjects had lower muscle ?-F1 -ATPase FSR (0.10 ± 0.05 vs. 0.06 ± 0.03% h-1 ; P < 0.05) and protein expression (P < 0.05), but not mRNA expression (P > 0.05). Across subjects, abundance of ?-F1 -ATPase correlated with the FSR of ?-F1 -ATPase (P < 0.05). The specific activity of muscle ATP synthase was lower in obese compared to lean subjects (0.035 ± 0.004 vs. 0.042 ± 0.007 arbitrary units; P < 0.05), but this difference was not significant after the activity of the ATP synthase was adjusted to the ?-F1 -ATPase content (P > 0.05). Obesity impairs the synthesis of ?-F1 -ATPase in muscle at the translational level, reducing the content of ?-F1 -ATPase in parallel with reduced capacity for ATP generation via the ATP synthase complex.

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Characterization of the expressed genes for subunit c of mitochondrial ATP synthase in sheep with ceroid lipofuscinosis.

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