High impact information on AEP2

• Mutations in the nuclear AEP2 gene of Saccharomyces generate greatly reduced levels of the mature form of mitochondrial oli1 mRNA, encoding subunit 9 of mitochondrial ATP synthase [1].
• It is inferred that the suppressing mutation in the 5' untranslated region of oli1 mRNA restores subunit 9 biosynthesis by accommodating the modified structure of Aep2p generated by the aep2-ts1 mutation (shown here to cause the substitution of proline for leucine at residue 413 of Aep2p) [1].
• The nucleotide sequence of the yeast nuclear AEP2 gene, required for the expression of the mitochondrial DNA-encoded subunit 9 of ATP synthase, predicts a primary translation product of 67.5 kDa [2].
• Cell-free translation of AEP2 produces a 64 kDa polypeptide (consistent with the AEP2 sequence) which is imported into mitochondria and processed to a 58 kDa product by the removal of a presequence of about 50 amino acids [2].
• Hybridization analyses indicate that AEP2 is located on chromosome XIII and produces a 2.1 kb poly(A)+ transcript [3].

Biological context of AEP2

• Two additional open-reading frames were found in close proximity to that of AEP2 [3].
• The AEP2 gene has been isolated in this study from a wild-type yeast genomic library by genetic complementation of ts379 at the restrictive temperature [3].
• Disruption of chromosomal DNA within this reading frame produced a non-conditional respiratory mutant unable to synthesize subunit 9, identifying the AEP2 gene [3].

Other interactions of AEP2

• The mutants indicate that the products of a least two nuclear genes (designated AEP1 and AEP2) are required for the expression of the mitochondrial oli1 gene and the synthesis of subunit 9 [4].

References