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Cardiolipin is important for bacterial and mitochondrial stability and function. The final step in cardiolipin biosynthesis is catalyzed by cardiolipin synthase and differs mechanistically between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. To study the importance of cardiolipin synthesis for mitochondrial integrity, membrane protein complex formation, and cell proliferation in the human and animal pathogenic protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma brucei, we generated conditional cardiolipin synthase-knockout parasites. We found that cardiolipin formation in T. brucei procyclic forms is catalyzed by a bacterial-type cardiolipin synthase, providing experimental evidence for a prokaryotic-type cardiolipin synthase in a eukaryotic organism. Ablation of enzyme expression resulted in inhibition of de novo cardiolipin synthesis, reduction in cellular cardiolipin levels, alterations in mitochondrial morphology and function, and parasite death in culture. By using immunofluorescence microscopy and blue-native gel electrophoresis, cardiolipin synthase was shown to colocalize with inner mitochondrial membrane proteins and to be part of a large protein complex. During depletion of cardiolipin synthase, the levels of cytochrome oxidase subunit IV and cytochrome c1, reflecting mitochondrial respiratory complexes IV and III, respectively, decreased progressively.

We employed fluorescence energy-transfer probes to investigate the polypeptide dynamics accompanying cytochrome c' folding. Analysis of fluorescence energy-transfer kinetics from wild-type Trp-72 or Trp-32 in a crystallographically characterized (1.78 A) Q1A/F32W/W72F mutant shows that there is structural heterogeneity in denatured cytochrome c'. Even at guanidine hydrochloride concentrations well beyond the unfolding transition, a substantial fraction of the polypeptides ( approximately 50%) adopts compact conformations (tryptophan-to-heme distance, approximately 25 A) in both pseudo-wild-type (Q1A) and mutant proteins. A burst phase (< or =5 ms) is revealed when stopped flow-triggered refolding is probed by tryptophan intensity: measurements on the Q1A protein show that approximately 75% of the Trp-72 fluorescence (83% for Trp-32) is quenched within the mixing deadtime, suggesting that most of the polypeptides have collapsed.

Quinol oxidation by the bc(1) complex of Rhodobacter sphaeroides occurs from an enzyme-substrate complex formed between quinol bound at the Q(o) site and the iron-sulfur protein (ISP) docked at an interface on cytochrome b. From the structure of the stigmatellin-containing mitochondrial complex, we suggest that hydrogen bonds to the two quinol hydroxyl groups, from Glu-272 of cytochrome b and His-161 of the ISP, help to stabilize the enzyme-substrate complex and aid proton release. Reduction of the oxidized ISP involves H transfer from quinol. Release of the proton occurs when the acceptor chain reoxidizes the reduced ISP, after domain movement to an interface on cytochrome c(1). Effects of mutations to the ISP that change the redox potential and/or the pK on the oxidized form support this mechanism. Structures for the complex in the presence of inhibitors show two different orientations of Glu-272. In stigmatellin-containing crystals, the side chain points into the site, to hydrogen bond with a ring hydroxyl, while His-161 hydrogen bonds to the carbonyl group. In the native structure, or crystals containing myxothiazol or beta-methoxyacrylate-type inhibitors, the Glu-272 side chain is rotated to point out of the site, to the surface of an external aqueous channel. Effects of mutation at this residue suggest that this group is involved in ligation of stigmatellin and quinol, but not quinone, and that the carboxylate function is essential for rapid turnover. H(+) transfer from semiquinone to the carboxylate side chain and rotation to the position found in the myxothiazol structure provide a pathway for release of the second proton.

The level and structure of yeast iso-1-cytochrome c and iso-2-cytochrome c, encoded by the nuclear genes CYC1 and CYC7, respectively, are normally not altered in rho- mutants, which completely lack the cytochromes a.a3 subunits and cytochrome b that are encoded by mitochondrial DNA. In contrast, iso-cytochromes c containing the amino acid change Thr-78-->Ile (T78I) were observed at the normal or near-normal wild-type level in rho+ strains but were completely absent in rho- mutants. We have demonstrated with the "global" suppressor mutation Asn-52-->Ile and by pulse-chase labeling that the T78I iso-1-cytochrome c undergoes rapid cellular degradation in rho- mutants. Furthermore, specific mutations revealed that the deficiency of T78I iso-1 cytochrome c can be caused by the lack of cytochrome a.a3 or cytochrome c1, but not by the lack of cytochrome b. Thus, this and certain other, but not all, labile forms of cytochrome c are protected from degradation by the interaction with its physiological partners.

Genes coding for polyproteins that are cleaved posttranslationally into two or more functional proteins are rarely found in prokaryotes. One example concerns the biogenesis of the Bradyrhizobium japonicum cytochromes b and c1, two of the three constituent subunits of ubiquinol-cytochrome-c reductase (ubiquinol:ferricytochrome-c oxidoreductase, EC 1.10.2.2); the respective apoproteins for these subunits are encoded by the 5' and 3' halves of a single gene, fbcH. These two halves are linked by an extra piece of DNA encoding a characteristic signal peptide for protein translocation across the cytoplasmic membrane. Processing of the fbcH gene product is shown to occur at a typical signal peptidase recognition site. This reaction is reminiscent of that catalyzed by the regular bacterial signal peptidase that normally cleaves off presequences from the N termini of translocated proteins. Mutational alteration of the signal peptidase recognition site within FbcH results in the appearance of an uncleaved bc1 fusion protein in the membrane. Additionally, a functional heme-binding site in the apocytochrome c1 section of FbcH is shown to be a necessary prerequisite for the formation of the bc1 complex.

Highly purified cytochrome c1, which consists of only one heme peptide and does not form a stable c1-c complex (c1-H-c complex), was used in studies of electron transfer between cytochrome c1 and c. Results show that a stable and ionic-strength-sensitive c1-c complex (i.e., the c1-H-c complex) in the forms of the various oxidation states is not required, in contrast to the current belief of the participation of the complex in the electron transfer between cytochromes c1 and c. A minimum mechanism for electron transfer between these two cytochromes is suggested in accord with the experimental results.