Assembly of the complexes of oxidative phosphorylation triggers the remodeling of cardiolipin

Significance Mitochondria contain cardiolipin, a special phospholipid that strongly interacts with proteins. Cardiolipin has a unique fatty acid composition, the disturbance of which causes the human disease Barth syndrome. However, neither the mechanism by which cardiolipin acquires specific fatty acids nor their actual function has been established. In this paper, we demonstrate that the expression of the complexes of oxidative phosphorylation is responsible for inducing the specific fatty acid composition in cardiolipin. We hypothesize that the purpose of this process is the stabilization of lipid–protein interactions in the extremely crowded environment of mitochondrial membranes.