PHYLOGENETIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE MITOCHONDRIAL CARRIER FAMILY OF SACCHAROMYCES-CEREVISIAE

The screening of the open reading frames identified in the whole yeast genome has allowed us to discover 34 proteins belonging to the mitoch ondrial carrier family. By phylogenetic study, they can be divided int o 27 subfamilies including ADP/ATP, phosphate and citrate carriers, pu tative oxoglutarate and GDC carriers and 22 new subfamilies. Topology predictions using the 'positive inside rule' approach have shown that the yeast carriers are similarly oriented with both extremities expose d to the cytosol. In each subfamily, a strict conservation of the char ged residues in the six transmembrane alpha-helices is observed, sugge sting a functional role for these residues and the existence of 27 fun ctionally distinct carriers. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.