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Mitochondrial Respiratory Chain Megacomplex: the Final Assembly
Gu Jinke, Zong Shuai, Wu Meng, Guo Runyu, Yang Maojun*
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Protein Science, Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Abstract: Respiration is one of the most vital and basic features of living organism. In mammals， respiration is accomplished by respiratory chain complexes located on mitochondrial inner membrane. In the past century， scientists have put tremendous efforts in understanding these complexes， but failed to solve the high resolution structure until recently. This year， our latest work purified megacomplex I2III2IV2 from cultured human cells for the first time around the world， and solved its sturcture using cryo-EM single particle analysis. Besides， with the help of computer stimulation， we propose complex II is also involved in the megacomplex， which lead to the ultimate form I2II2III2IV2. Definitely， our high resolution megacomplex structure will provide precious information for conquering the mitochondrial malfunction diseases， including Alzheimer’s syndrome， Parkinson’s disease， multiple sclerosis， friedreich’s ataxia， Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis， etc.
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