Abstract
We report the cloning and molecular analysis of Drosophila mitochondrial transcription factor (d-mtTF) B1. An RNA interference (RNAi) construct was designed that reduces expression of d-mtTFB1 to 5% of its normal level in Schneider cells. In striking contrast with our previous study on d-mtTFB2, we found that RNAi knock-down of d-mtTFB1 does not change the abundance of specific mitochondrial RNA transcripts, nor does it affect the copy number of mitochondrial DNA. In a corollary manner, overexpression of d-mtTFB1 did not increase either the abundance of mitochondrial RNA transcripts or mitochondrial DNA copy number. Our data suggest that, unlike d-mtTFB2, d-mtTFB1 does not have a critical role in either transcription or regulation of the copy number of mitochondrial DNA. Instead, because we found that RNAi knockdown of d-mtTFB1 reduces mitochondrial protein synthesis, we propose that it serves its primary role in modulating translation. Our work represents the first study to document the role of mtTFB1 in vivo and establishes clearly functional differences between mtTFB1 and mtTFB2.
Highlights
Mitochondrial number and DNA content vary widely depending on cellular energy requirements, which are met in large part by ATP production by the oxidative phosphorylation pathway
In striking contrast with our previous study on d-mtTFB2, we found that RNA interference (RNAi) knockdown of d-mtTFB1 does not change the abundance of specific mitochondrial RNA transcripts, nor does it affect the copy number of mitochondrial DNA
Because we found that RNAi knockdown of d-mtTFB1 reduces mitochondrial protein synthesis, we propose that it serves its primary role in modulating translation
Summary
Mitochondrial number and DNA content vary widely depending on cellular energy requirements, which are met in large part by ATP production by the oxidative phosphorylation pathway. In a recent study [13], we showed that RNAi knockdown of d-mtTFB2 reduces the abundance of specific mitochondrial RNA transcripts and decreases the copy number of mtDNA in Drosophila cultured cells.
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