bims-tricox 2023-07-30 papers

bims-tricox

Biomed News

on Translation, ribosomes and COX

Issue of 2023‒07‒30
seven papers selected by
Yash Verma
University of Zurich

Dissecting the Nuclear Import of the Ribosomal Protein Rps2 (uS5).
Visualizing the nucleoplasmic maturation of human pre-60S ribosomal particles.
Chloroplast Ribosome Biogenesis Factors.
Cytosolic and mitochondrial translation elongation are coordinated through the molecular chaperone TRAP1 for the synthesis and import of mitochondrial proteins.
Nascent mitochondrial proteins initiate the localized condensation of cytosolic protein aggregates on the mitochondrial surface.
Two "Edges" in Our Knowledge on the Functions of Ribosomal Proteins: The Revealed Contributions of Their Regions to Translation Mechanisms and the Issues of Their Extracellular Transport by Exosomes.
Structure of mitoribosome reveals mechanism of mRNA binding, tRNA interactions with L1 stalk, roles of cofactors and rRNA modifications.

Biomolecules. 2023 Jul 14. pii: 1127. [Epub ahead of print]13(7):

Dissecting the Nuclear Import of the Ribosomal Protein Rps2 (uS5).

Andreas Steiner, Sébastien Favre, Maximilian Mack, Annika Hausharter, Benjamin Pillet, Jutta Hafner, Valentin Mitterer, Dieter Kressler, Brigitte Pertschy, Ingrid Zierler.

  The ribosome is assembled in a complex process mainly taking place in the nucleus. Consequently, newly synthesized ribosomal proteins have to travel from the cytoplasm into the nucleus, where they are incorporated into nascent ribosomal subunits. In this study, we set out to investigate the mechanism mediating nuclear import of the small subunit ribosomal protein Rps2. We demonstrate that an internal region in Rps2, ranging from amino acids 76 to 145, is sufficient to target a 3xyEGFP reporter to the nucleus. The importin-β Pse1 interacts with this Rps2 region and is involved in its import, with Rps2 residues arginine 95, arginine 97, and lysine 99 being important determinants for both Pse1 binding and nuclear localization. Moreover, our data reveal a second import mechanism involving the N-terminal region of Rps2, which depends on the presence of basic residues within amino acids 10 to 28. This Rps2 segment overlaps with the binding site of the dedicated chaperone Tsr4; however, the nuclear import of Rps2 via the internal as well as the N-terminal nuclear-targeting element does not depend on Tsr4. Taken together, our study has unveiled hitherto undescribed nuclear import signals, showcasing the versatility of the mechanisms coordinating the nuclear import of ribosomal proteins.

Keywords:  Kap121; Pse1; Rps2; dedicated chaperone; importin; nuclear import; ribosomal protein; ribosome assembly; uS5; yeast

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/biom13071127
Cell Res. 2023 Jul 25.

Visualizing the nucleoplasmic maturation of human pre-60S ribosomal particles.

Yunyang Zhang, Xiaomeng Liang, Sha Luo, Yan Chen, Yu Li, Chengying Ma, Ningning Li, Ning Gao.

Eukaryotic ribosome assembly is a highly orchestrated process that involves over two hundred protein factors. After early assembly events on nascent rRNA in the nucleolus, pre-60S particles undergo continuous maturation steps in the nucleoplasm, and prepare for nuclear export. Here, we report eleven cryo-EM structures of the nuclear pre-60S particles isolated from human cells through epitope-tagged GNL2, at resolutions of 2.8-4.3 Å. These high-resolution snapshots provide fine details for several major structural remodeling events at a virtual temporal resolution. Two new human nuclear factors, L10K and C11orf98, were also identified. Comparative structural analyses reveal that many assembly factors act as successive place holders to control the timing of factor association/dissociation events. They display multi-phasic binding properties for different domains and generate complex binding inter-dependencies as a means to guide the rRNA maturation process towards its mature conformation. Overall, our data reveal that nuclear assembly of human pre-60S particles is generally hierarchical with short branch pathways, and a few factors display specific roles as rRNA chaperones by confining rRNA helices locally to facilitate their folding, such as the C-terminal domain of SDAD1.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-023-00853-9
Plant Cell Physiol. 2023 Jul 27. pii: pcad082. [Epub ahead of print]

Chloroplast Ribosome Biogenesis Factors.

Lisa-Marie Schmid, Nikolay Manavski, Wei Chi, Jörg Meurer.

  The formation of chloroplasts can be traced back to an ancient event in which a eukaryotic host cell containing mitochondria ingested a cyanobacterium. Since then, chloroplasts have retained many characteristics of their bacterial ancestor, including their transcription and translation machinery. In this review, recent research on the maturation of rRNA and ribosome assembly in chloroplasts is explored, along with their crucial role in plant survival and their implications for plant acclimation to changing environments. A comparison is made between the ribosome composition and auxiliary factors of ancient and modern chloroplasts, providing insights into the evolution of ribosome assembly factors. Although the chloroplast contains ancient proteins with conserved functions in ribosome assembly, newly evolved factors have also emerged to help plants acclimate to changes in their environment and internal signals. Overall, this review offers a comprehensive analysis of the molecular mechanisms underlying chloroplast ribosome assembly and highlights the importance of this process in plant survival, acclimation, and adaptation.

Keywords:  GTPase; RNA chaperone; RNA-helicase; chloroplast ribosome assembly; rRNA; ribogenesis

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1093/pcp/pcad082
Genome Res. 2023 Jul 24. pii: gr.277755.123. [Epub ahead of print]

Cytosolic and mitochondrial translation elongation are coordinated through the molecular chaperone TRAP1 for the synthesis and import of mitochondrial proteins.

Rosario Avolio, Ilenia Agliarulo, Daniela Criscuolo, Daniela Sarnataro, Margherita Auriemma, Sabrina De Lella, Sara Pennacchio, Giovanni Calice, Martin Y Ng, Carlotta Giorgi, Paolo Pinton, Barry Cooperman, Matteo Landriscina, Franca Esposito, Danilo Swann Matassa.

A complex interplay between mRNA translation and cellular respiration has been recently unveiled, but its regulation in humans is poorly characterized in either health or disease. Cancer cells radically reshape both biosynthetic and bioenergetic pathways to sustain their aberrant growth rates. In this regard, we have shown that the molecular chaperone TRAP1 not only regulates the activity of respiratory complexes, behaving alternatively as an oncogene or a tumor suppressor, but also plays a concomitant moonlighting function in mRNA translation regulation. Herein we identify the molecular mechanisms involved, demonstrating that TRAP1: i) binds both mitochondrial and cytosolic ribosomes as well as translation elongation factors, ii) slows down translation elongation rate, and iii) favors localized translation in the proximity of mitochondria. We also provide evidence that TRAP1 is coexpressed in human tissues with the mitochondrial translational machinery, which is responsible for the synthesis of respiratory complex proteins. Altogether, our results show an unprecedented level of complexity in the regulation of cancer cell metabolism, strongly suggesting the existence of a tight feedback loop between protein synthesis and energy metabolism, based on the demonstration that a single molecular chaperone plays a role in both mitochondrial and cytosolic translation, as well as in mitochondrial respiration.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.277755.123
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 08;120(31): e2300475120

Nascent mitochondrial proteins initiate the localized condensation of cytosolic protein aggregates on the mitochondrial surface.

Qingqing Liu, Benjamin Fong, Seungmin Yoo, Jay R Unruh, Fengli Guo, Zulin Yu, Jingjing Chen, Kausik Si, Rong Li, Chuankai Zhou.

  Eukaryotes organize cellular contents into membrane-bound organelles and membrane-less condensates, for example, protein aggregates. An unsolved question is why the ubiquitously distributed proteins throughout the cytosol give rise to spatially localized protein aggregates on the organellar surface, like mitochondria. We report that the mitochondrial import receptor Tom70 is involved in the localized condensation of protein aggregates in budding yeast and human cells. This is because misfolded cytosolic proteins do not autonomously aggregate in vivo; instead, they are recruited to the condensation sites initiated by Tom70's substrates (nascent mitochondrial proteins) on the organellar membrane using multivalent hydrophobic interactions. Knocking out Tom70 partially impairs, while overexpressing Tom70 increases the formation and association between cytosolic protein aggregates and mitochondria. In addition, ectopic targeting Tom70 and its substrates to the vacuole surface is able to redirect the localized aggregation from mitochondria to the vacuolar surface. Although other redundant mechanisms may exist, this nascent mitochondrial proteins-based initiation of protein aggregation likely explains the localized condensation of otherwise ubiquitously distributed molecules on the mitochondria. Disrupting the mitochondrial association of aggregates impairs their asymmetric retention during mitosis and reduces the mitochondrial import of misfolded proteins, suggesting a proteostasis role of the organelle-condensate interactions.

Keywords:  condensate; mitochondria; protein aggregation

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2300475120
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jul 14. pii: 11458. [Epub ahead of print]24(14):

Two "Edges" in Our Knowledge on the Functions of Ribosomal Proteins: The Revealed Contributions of Their Regions to Translation Mechanisms and the Issues of Their Extracellular Transport by Exosomes.

Anastasia Ochkasova, Grigory Arbuzov, Alexey Malygin, Dmitri Graifer.

  Ribosomal proteins (RPs), the constituents of the ribosome, belong to the most abundant proteins in the cell. A highly coordinated network of interactions implicating RPs and ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) forms the functionally competent structure of the ribosome, enabling it to perform translation, the synthesis of polypeptide chain on the messenger RNA (mRNA) template. Several RPs contact ribosomal ligands, namely, those with transfer RNAs (tRNAs), mRNA or translation factors in the course of translation, and the contribution of a number of these particular contacts to the translation process has recently been established. Many ribosomal proteins also have various extra-ribosomal functions unrelated to translation. The least-understood and -discussed functions of RPs are those related to their participation in the intercellular communication via extracellular vesicles including exosomes, etc., which often carry RPs as passengers. Recently reported data show that such a kind of communication can reprogram a receptor cell and change its phenotype, which is associated with cancer progression and metastasis. Here, we review the state-of-art ideas on the implications of specific amino acid residues of RPs in the particular stages of the translation process in higher eukaryotes and currently available data on the transport of RPs by extracellular vesicles and its biological effects.

Keywords:  eukaryotes; extracellular transport of ribosomal proteins; ribosomal proteins; translation

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241411458
bioRxiv. 2023 Jul 15. pii: 2023.05.24.542018. [Epub ahead of print]

Structure of mitoribosome reveals mechanism of mRNA binding, tRNA interactions with L1 stalk, roles of cofactors and rRNA modifications.

Vivek Singh, Yuzuru Itoh, Samuel Del'Olio, Asem Hassan, Andreas Naschberger, Rasmus Kock Flygaard, Yuko Nobe, Keiichi Izumikawa, Shintaro Aibara, Juni Andréll, Paul C Whitford, Antoni Barrientos, Masato Taoka, Alexey Amunts.

The mitoribosome translates mitochondrial mRNAs and regulates energy conversion that is a signature of aerobic life forms. We present a 2.2 Å resolution structure of human mitoribosome together with validated mitoribosomal RNA (rRNA) modifications, including aminoacylated CP-tRNA Val . The structure shows how mitoribosomal proteins stabilise binding of mRNA and tRNA helping to align it in the decoding center, whereas the GDP-bound mS29 stabilizes intersubunit communication. Comparison between different states, with respect to tRNA position, allowed to characterize a non-canonical L1 stalk, and molecular dynamics simulations revealed how it facilitates tRNA transition in a way that does not require interactions with rRNA. We also report functionally important polyamines that are depleted when cells are subjected to an antibiotic treatment. The structural, biochemical, and computational data illuminate the principal functional components of the translation mechanism in mitochondria and provide the most complete description so far of the structure and function of the human mitoribosome.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.24.542018