B. Lain et al., AMINOTRANSFERASE VARIANTS AS PROBES FOR THE ROLE OF THE N-TERMINAL REGION OF A MATURE PROTEIN IN MITOCHONDRIAL PRECURSOR IMPORT AND PROCESSING, The Journal of biological chemistry, 273(8), 1998, pp. 4406-4415
Of the two homologous isozymes of aspartate aminotransferase that are
also nearly identical in their folded structures, only the mitochondri
al form (mAAT) is synthesized as a precursor (pmAAT). After its in vit
ro synthesis in rabbit reticulocyte lysate, it can also be efficiently
imported into isolated rat liver mitochondria, where it is processed
to its native form by removal of the N-terminal presequence. The homol
ogous cytosolic isoenzyme (cAAT) is not imported into mitochondria, ev
en after fusion of the mitochondrial presequence from pmAAT to its N-t
erminal end. Substitution of the 30-residue N-terminal peptide of the
mature portion of pmAAT with the corresponding sequence from the homol
ogous, import-incompetent cytosolic isozyme (pc-mAAT) does not prevent
import but reduces substantially its processing in the matrix. A dete
ctable amount of the pcmAAT chimera is found associated with the inner
mitochondrial membrane. Single and double substitution mutants of Trp
-5 and Trp-6 at the N-terminal end of the mature protein are imported
into mitochondria with efficiency similar to that of wild type. Howeve
r, replacement of Trp-5 with proline, or of both tryptophans with eith
er alanine (W5A/W6A mutant) or valine and aline (W5V/W6A mutant), allo
ws import but interferes with the correct processing of the imported p
rotein despite the presence of an intact cleavage site for the process
ing peptidase. Similar cleavage results were obtained using newly synt
hesized proteins and mitochondrial matrix extracts. These results indi
cate that translocation and processing for a precursor are independent
events and that sequences C-terminal to the cleavage site are indeed
important for the correct maturation of pmAAT in the matrix, probably
because of their contribution to the conformation and flexibility of t
he peptide region surrounding the cleavage site required for efficient
processing. The same region from the mature component of the passenge
r protein to complete its translocation into the matrix.