Summary
Import of proteins is of vital importance for the biogenesis of mitochondria. The vast majority of mitochondrial proteins is encoded within the nuclear genome and translocated into various mitochondrial compartments after translation in the cytosol as preproteins. Even in rather primitive eukaryotes like yeasts, these are 700 to 1,000 different proteins, whereas only a handful of proteins is encoded in the mitochondrial DNA. In vitro import studies are important tools to understand import mechanisms and pathways. Using isolated mitochondria and radioactively labeled precursor proteins, it was possible to identify several import machineries and pathways consisting of a large number of components during the last decades.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie to KB and of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (He2803/2-3 and SFB 594 TP B05) and the Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Innovation to JMH.
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© 2008 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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Bihlmaier, K., Bien, M., Herrmann, J.M. (2008). In Vitro Import of Proteins Into Isolated Mitochondria. In: Vancura, A. (eds) Membrane Trafficking. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 457. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-261-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-261-8_6
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