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Regulation of mitochondrial pyruvate uptake by alternative pyruvate carrier complexes
Author(s) -
Bender Tom,
Pena Gabrielle,
Martinou JeanClaude
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.15252/embj.201490197
Subject(s) - biology , biochemistry , oxidative phosphorylation , mitochondrion , yeast , pyruvate dehydrogenase complex , pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase , pyruvate carboxylase , pyruvate decarboxylation , metabolism , microbiology and biotechnology , citric acid cycle , enzyme
At the pyruvate branch point, the fermentative and oxidative metabolic routes diverge. Pyruvate can be transformed either into lactate in mammalian cells or into ethanol in yeast, or transported into mitochondria to fuel ATP production by oxidative phosphorylation. The recently discovered mitochondrial pyruvate carrier ( MPC ), encoded by MPC 1, MPC 2, and MPC 3 in yeast, is required for uptake of pyruvate into the organelle. Here, we show that while expression of Mpc1 is not dependent on the carbon source, expression of Mpc2 and Mpc3 is specific to fermentative or respiratory conditions, respectively. This gives rise to two alternative carrier complexes that we have termed MPC FERM and MPC OX . By constitutively expressing the two alternative complexes in yeast deleted for all three endogenous genes, we show that MPC OX has a higher transport activity than MPC FERM , which is dependent on the C‐terminus of Mpc3. We propose that the alternative MPC subunit expression in yeast provides a way of adapting cellular metabolism to the nutrient availability.