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Pathogenic variants in cytochrome c oxidase assembly factor 5 (COA5), a proposed complex IV (CIV) assembly factor, have been shown to cause clinical mitochondrial disease with two siblings affected by neonatal hypertrophic cardiomyopathy manifesting a rare, homozygous COA5 missense variant (NM_001008215.3: c.157G>C, p.Ala53Pro). The most striking observation in the affected individuals was an isolated impairment in the early stage of mitochondrial CIV assembly. In this study, we report an unrelated family in whom we have identified the same COA5 variant with patient-derived fibroblasts and skeletal muscle biopsies replicating an isolated CIV deficiency. A CRISPR/Cas9-edited homozygous COA5 knockout U2OS cell line with a similar biochemical profile was generated to interrogate the functional role of the human COA5 protein. Mitochondrial complexome profiling pinpointed a role of COA5 in early CIV assembly, more specifically, its involvement in the stage between MTCO1 maturation and the incorporation of MTCO2. We therefore propose that the COA5 protein plays an essential role in the biogenesis of MTCO2 and its integration into the early CIV assembly intermediate for downstream assembly of the functional holocomplex., (© 2025 Tang et al.)

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are an invaluable tool to study molecular mechanisms on a human background. Culturing stem cells at an oxygen level different from their microenvironmental niche impacts their viability. To understand this mechanistically, dermal skin fibroblasts of 52 probands were reprogrammed into hiPSCs, followed by either hyperoxic (20 % O 2 ) or physioxic (5 % O 2 ) culture and proteomic profiling. Analysis of chromosomal stability by Giemsa-banding revealed that physioxic -cultured hiPSC clones exhibited less pathological karyotypes than hyperoxic (e.g. 6 % vs. 32 % mosaicism), higher pluripotency as evidenced by higher Stage-Specific Embryonic Antigen 3 positivity, higher glucose consumption and lactate production. Global proteomic analysis demonstrated lower abundance of several subunits of NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase (complex I) and an underrepresentation of pathways linked to oxidative phosphorylation and cellular senescence. Accordingly, release of the pro-senescent factor IGFBP3 and β-galactosidase staining were lower in physioxic hiPSCs. RNA- and ATAC-seq profiling revealed a distinct hypoxic transcription factor-binding footprint, amongst others higher expression of the HIF1α-regulated target NDUFA4L2 along with increased chromatin accessibility of the NDUFA4L2 gene locus. While mitochondrial DNA content did not differ between groups, physioxic hiPSCs revealed lower polarized mitochondrial membrane potential, altered mitochondrial network appearance and reduced basal respiration and electron transfer capacity. Blue-native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry of the mitochondrial complexes detected higher abundance of NDUFA4L2 and ATP5IF1 and loss of incorporation into complex IV or V, respectively. Taken together, physioxic culture of hiPSCs improved chromosomal stability, which was associated with downregulation of oxidative phosphorylation and senescence and extensive re-wiring of mitochondrial complex composition., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: TE is a shareholder and a member of the scientific advisory board of DiNAQOR, which is not relating to this manuscript. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The accumulation of functionally impaired mitochondria is a key event in aging. Previous works with the fungal aging model Podospora anserina demonstrated pronounced age-dependent changes of mitochondrial morphology and ultrastructure, as well as alterations of transcript and protein levels, including individual proteins of the oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). The identified protein changes do not reflect the level of the whole protein complexes as they function in-vivo. In the present study, we investigated in detail the age-dependent changes of assembled mitochondrial protein complexes, using complexome profiling. We observed pronounced age-depen-dent alterations of the OXPHOS complexes, including the loss of mitochondrial respiratory supercomplexes (mtRSCs) and a reduction in the abundance of complex I and complex IV. Additionally, we identified a switch from the standard complex IV-dependent respiration to an alternative respiration during the aging of the P. anserina wild type. Interestingly, we identified proteasome components, as well as endoplasmic reticulum (ER) proteins, for which the recruitment to mitochondria appeared to be increased in the mitochondria of older cultures. Overall, our data demonstrate pronounced age-dependent alterations of the protein complexes involved in energy transduction and suggest the induction of different non-mitochondrial salvage pathways, to counteract the age-dependent mitochondrial impairments which occur during aging.

Complexome profiling combines blue native gel electrophoresis (BNE) and quantitative mass spectrometry to define an entire protein interactome of a cell, an organelle, or a biological membrane preparation. The method allows the identification of protein assemblies with low abundance and detects dynamic processes of protein complex assembly. Applications of complexome profiling range from the determination of complex subunit compositions, assembly of single protein complexes, and supercomplexes to comprehensive differential studies between patients or disease models. This chapter describes the workflow of complexome profiling from sample preparation, mass spectrometry to data analysis with a bioinformatics tool.