MBE Advance Access published online on January 22, 2004
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msh058
Molecular Biology and Evolution © Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2004; all rights reserved
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1 Russell Grimwade School of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Melbourne, Australia
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: t.lithgow{at}unimelb.edu.au.
Mitochondria evolved from an endosymbiotic proteobacterium in a process that required the transfer of genes from the bacterium to the host cell nucleus and the translocation of proteins thereby made in the host cell cytosol into the internal compartments of the organelle. According to current models for this evolution, two highly improbable events are required to occur simultaneously: creation of a protein translocation machinery to import proteins back into the endosymbiont and creation of targeting sequences on the protein substrates themselves. Using a combination of two independent prediction methods, validated through tests on simulated genomes, we show that at least 5% of proteins encoded by an extant proteobacterium are predisposed for targeting to mitochondria, and propose that mitochondrial targeting information was pre-existing for many proteins of the endosymbiont. We analyzed a family of proteins whose members exist both in bacteria and in the mitochondria of eukaryotes, and show the amino-terminal extensions occasionally found in bacterial family members can function as a crude import sequence when the protein is presented to isolated mitochondria, leaving the development of a primitive translocation channel in the outer membrane of the endosymbiont as a single hurdle to initiate the evolution of mitochondria. Key Words:
endosymbiont, mitochondria, targeting sequence, protein import
© 2004 Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
Original Articles
Bacterial Proteins Predisposed for Targeting to Mitochondria
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