Biogenesis of mitochondrial outer membrane proteins, problems and diseases
10.06.2015.2015
Ellenrieder L, Martensson CU, Becker T.
Biol Chem. 2015;396(11):1199-213
Outer mitochondrial membrane proteins are integrated into the membrane by a transmembrane beta-barrel or by a single or multiple alpha-helical membrane anchor. All these proteins are synthesized on cytosolic ribosomes and are imported into their target membrane by dedicated protein machineries. Precursors of beta-barrel proteins are first imported via the translocase of the outer membrane (TOM complex) and inserted into the membrane by the sorting and assembly machinery (SAM complex). The mitochondrial import machinery (MIM) mediates the import of proteins with multiple alpha-helical membrane spans. In addition, different import routes for proteins with a single alpha-helical membrane anchor have been described. Thus, the mitochondrial outer membrane harbour a complex set of protein machineries to integrate different types of precursor proteins.
