Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Oct 20:S1097-2765(25)00815-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2025.09.030. Online ahead of print.

Delayed protein translocation protects mitochondria against toxic CAT-tailed proteins

Affiliations
Free article

Delayed protein translocation protects mitochondria against toxic CAT-tailed proteins

Nils Bertram et al. Mol Cell. .
Free article

Abstract

Ribosome-associated protein quality control (RQC) protects cells against the toxic effects of faulty polypeptides produced by stalled ribosomes. However, mitochondria are vulnerable to C-terminal alanyl and threonyl (CAT)-tailed proteins that are generated in this process, and faulty nuclear-encoded mitochondrial proteins are handled by the recently discovered mitoRQC. Here, we performed a genome-wide screen in yeast to identify additional proteins involved in mitoRQC. We found that peptidyl-tRNA hydrolase 2 (Pth2), present in the mitochondrial outer membrane, influences aggregation of CAT-tailed proteins without majorly affecting the CAT-tailing process itself. Peptidyl-tRNA hydrolase activity is essential during this process, yet the activity of Pth2 can be substituted by another peptidyl-tRNA hydrolase upon proper localization. Our data suggest that Pth2 acts by modulating protein translocation and that the mitochondrial proteostasis network is relieved through increased access of CAT-tailed proteins to cytosolic chaperones. Other hits obtained in the screen show that, in general, delayed protein translocation protects mitochondria against toxic CAT-tailed proteins.

Keywords: RQC; TOM complex; cellular homeostasis; mitoRQC; mitochondria; peptidyl-RNA hydrolase; protein translocation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests.

LinkOut - more resources