The free-living flagellate Paratrimastix pyriformis uses a distinct mitochondrial carrier to balance adenine nucleotide pools.

Paratrimastix pyriformis is a free-living flagellate thriving in low-oxygen freshwater sediments. It belongs to the group Metamonada along with human parasites, such as Giardia and Trichomonas. Like other metamonads, P. pyriformis has a mitochondrion-related organelle (MRO) which in this protist is primarily involved in one-carbon folate metabolism. The MRO contains four members of the solute carrier family 25 (SLC25) responsible for the exchange of metabolites across the mitochondrial inner membrane. Here, we characterise the function of the adenine nucleotide carrier PpMC1 by thermostability shift and transport assays. We show that it transports ATP, ADP and, to a lesser extent, AMP, but not phosphate. The carrier is distinct in function and origin from both ADP/ATP carriers and ATP-Mg/phosphate carriers, and it most likely represents a distinct class of adenine nucleotide carriers.

A Single Cysteine Residue in the Translocation Pathway of the Mitosomal ADP/ATP Carrier from Cryptosporidium parvum Confers a Broad Nucleotide Specificity.

Cryptosporidiumparvum is a clinically important eukaryotic parasite that causes the disease cryptosporidiosis, which manifests with gastroenteritis-like symptoms. The protist has mitosomes, which are organelles of mitochondrial origin that have only been partially characterized. The genome encodes a highly reduced set of transport proteins of the SLC25 mitochondrial carrier family of unknown function. Here, we have studied the transport properties of one member of the C. parvum carrier family, demonstrating that it resembles the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier of eukaryotes. However, this carrier has a broader substrate specificity for nucleotides, transporting adenosine, thymidine, and uridine di- and triphosphates in contrast to its mitochondrial orthologues, which have a strict substrate specificity for ADP and ATP. Inspection of the putative translocation pathway highlights a cysteine residue, which is a serine in mitochondrial ADP/ATP carriers. When the serine residue is replaced by cysteine or larger hydrophobic residues in the yeast mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier, the substrate specificity becomes broad, showing that this residue is important for nucleotide base selectivity in ADP/ATP carriers.

A mitochondrial carrier transports glycolytic intermediates to link cytosolic and mitochondrial glycolysis in the human gut parasite Blastocystis.

Stramenopiles form a clade of diverse eukaryotic organisms, including multicellular algae, the fish and plant pathogenic oomycetes, such as the potato blight Phytophthora, and the human intestinal protozoan Blastocystis. In most eukaryotes, glycolysis is a strictly cytosolic metabolic pathway that converts glucose to pyruvate, resulting in the production of NADH and ATP (Adenosine triphosphate). In contrast, stramenopiles have a branched glycolysis in which the enzymes of the pay-off phase are located in both the cytosol and the mitochondrial matrix. Here, we identify a mitochondrial carrier in Blastocystis that can transport glycolytic intermediates, such as dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate, across the mitochondrial inner membrane, linking the cytosolic and mitochondrial branches of glycolysis. Comparative analyses with the phylogenetically related human mitochondrial oxoglutarate carrier (SLC25A11) and dicarboxylate carrier (SLC25A10) show that the glycolytic intermediate carrier has lost its ability to transport the canonical substrates malate and oxoglutarate. Blastocystis lacks several key components of oxidative phosphorylation required for the generation of mitochondrial ATP, such as complexes III and IV, ATP synthase, and ADP/ATP carriers. The presence of the glycolytic pay-off phase in the mitochondrial matrix generates ATP, which powers energy-requiring processes, such as macromolecular synthesis, as well as NADH, used by mitochondrial complex I to generate a proton motive force to drive the import of proteins and molecules. Given its unique substrate specificity and central role in carbon and energy metabolism, the carrier for glycolytic intermediates identified here represents a specific drug and pesticide target against stramenopile pathogens, which are of great economic importance.

All living organisms breakdown food molecules to generate energy for processes, such as growing, reproducing and movement. The series of chemical reactions that breakdown sugars into smaller molecules ­ known as glycolysis ­ is so important that it occurs in all life forms, from bacteria to humans. In higher organisms, such as fungi and animals, these reactions take place in the cytosol, the space surrounding the cell's various compartments. A transport protein then shuttles the end-product of glycolysis ­ pyruvate ­ into specialised compartments, known as the mitochondria, where most energy is produced. However, recently it was discovered that a group of living organisms, called the stramenopiles, have a branched glycolysis in which the enzymes involved in the second half of this process are located in both the cytosol and mitochondrial matrix. But it was not known how the intermediate molecules produced after the first half of glycolysis enter the mitochondria. To answer this question, Pyrihová et al. searched for transport protein(s) that could link the two halves of the glycolysis pathway. Computational analyses, comparing the genetic sequences of many transport proteins from several different species, revealed a new group found only in stramenopiles. Pyrihová et al. then used microscopy to visualise these new transport proteins ­ called GIC-1 and GIC-2 ­ in the parasite Blastocystis, which infects the human gut, and observed that they localise to mitochondria. Further biochemical experiments showed that GIC-1 and GIC-2 can physically bind these intermediate molecules, but only GIC-2 can transport them across membranes. Taken together, these observations suggest that GIC-2 links the two halves of glycolysis in Blastocystis. Further analyses could reveal corresponding transport proteins in other stramenopiles, many of which have devastating effects on agriculture, such as Phytophthora, which causes potato blight, or Saprolegnia, which causes skin infections in farmed salmon. Since human cells do not have equivalent transporters, they could be new drug targets not only for Blastocystis, but for these harmful pathogens as well.