| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KOMIYA Tohru KYUSHU UNIVERSITY, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Research Associate, 大学院・医学研究院, 助手 (40304802)
SAKAGUCHI Masao KYUSHU UNIVERSITY, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor, 大学院・医学研究院, 助教授 (30205736)
|
|---|
| Research Abstract |
Our research efforts were directed at characterization of mammalian mitochondrial protein import machinery as follows. (I) Identification of Tom20, Tom22, Tom40, Tom70, and OM37 as the components of the protein tralslocase of rat liver mitochondrial outer membrane, (ii) Characterization of the 400 kDa TOM translocase, which is composed of Tom40, Tom22 and three small MW unidentified components, and (iii) Characterization of the mitochondria-target signal of Tom20 and Tom5, the N- and C-terminal membrane-anchor proteins, respectively ; the transmembrane domain (TMD) with a moderate hydrophobicity and positive charges at the C-terminal flanking region (one for Tom2O and three for Tom5) are both critical for the mitochondria-targeting signal. Characterization of the cytoplasmic components recognizing this signal is under way using permeabilized cell system. In addition, we have discovered novel topogenic functions of the TMDs in the topogenesis of the ER- targeted membrane proteins.
|
