The mitochondrial carriers are a family of transport proteins that shuttlemetabolites, nucleotides and cofactors across the inner mitochondrial membrane.The genome of Drosophila melanogaster encodes at least 46 members of this family.Only four of them have been characterized: the two isoforms of the ADP/ATPtranslocase, the brain uncoupling protein and the carnitine/acylcarnitine carriers.The transport functions of the remainders cannot be assessed with certainty. One ofthem, the product of the gene CG6782, shows a fairly close sequence homology to theknown sequence of the rat mitochondrial citrate carrier. In this article the fruit flyprotein coding by the CG6782 gene has been functionally characterized by overexpressionin Escherichia coli and reconstitution into liposomes. It shows to havesimilar transport properties of the eukaryotic mitochondrial citrate carrierspreviously biochemically characterized. This indicates that in addition to theprotein sequence conservation, insect and mammalian citrate carriers are alsosignificantly related at the functional level suggesting that Drosophila may be usedas model organism for the study of mitochondrial solute transporter. The DmCICexpression pattern throughout development was also investigated; the transcriptswere detected at equal levels in all stages analysed.

Identification of the Drosophila melanogaster mitochondrial citrate carrier: bacterial expression, reconstitution, functional characterization and developmental distribution

DOLCE, Vincenza;CAPPELLO, Anna Rita;
2008-01-01

Abstract

The mitochondrial carriers are a family of transport proteins that shuttlemetabolites, nucleotides and cofactors across the inner mitochondrial membrane.The genome of Drosophila melanogaster encodes at least 46 members of this family.Only four of them have been characterized: the two isoforms of the ADP/ATPtranslocase, the brain uncoupling protein and the carnitine/acylcarnitine carriers.The transport functions of the remainders cannot be assessed with certainty. One ofthem, the product of the gene CG6782, shows a fairly close sequence homology to theknown sequence of the rat mitochondrial citrate carrier. In this article the fruit flyprotein coding by the CG6782 gene has been functionally characterized by overexpressionin Escherichia coli and reconstitution into liposomes. It shows to havesimilar transport properties of the eukaryotic mitochondrial citrate carrierspreviously biochemically characterized. This indicates that in addition to theprotein sequence conservation, insect and mammalian citrate carriers are alsosignificantly related at the functional level suggesting that Drosophila may be usedas model organism for the study of mitochondrial solute transporter. The DmCICexpression pattern throughout development was also investigated; the transcriptswere detected at equal levels in all stages analysed.
2008
citrate carrier, Drosophila melanogaster, metabolite transporter, mitochondria, transport
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11770/123768
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