Abstract:
Genetic manipulation of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is straightforward. Nuclear genes can be interrupted by insertional mutagenesis or targeted by RNA interference whereas random or site-directed mutagenesis allows the introduction of mutations in the mitochondrial genome. This, combined with a screen that easily allows discriminating respiratory-deficient mutants, makes Chlamydomonas a model system of choice to study mitochondria biology in photosynthetic organisms. Since the first description of Chlamydomonas respiratory-deficient mutants in 1977 by random mutagenesis, many other mutants affected in mitochondrial components have been characterized. These respiratory-deficient mutants increased our knowledge on function and assembly of the respiratory enzyme complexes. More recently some of these mutants allowed the study of mitochondrial gene expression processes poorly understood in Chlamydomonas. In this review, we update the data concerning the respiratory components with a special focus on the assembly factors identified on other organisms. In addition, we make an inventory of different mitochondrial respiratory mutants that are inactivated either on mitochondrial or nuclear genes.
摘要:
单细胞绿藻衣藻的遗传操作很简单。核基因可以通过插入诱变中断或通过RNA干扰靶向,而随机或定点诱变允许在线粒体基因组中引入突变。这个,结合一个屏幕,可以很容易地区分呼吸缺陷突变体,使衣藻成为研究光合生物线粒体生物学的首选模型系统。自从1977年通过随机诱变首次描述衣藻呼吸缺陷突变体以来,已经表征了许多其他受线粒体成分影响的突变体。这些呼吸缺陷突变体增加了我们对呼吸酶复合物的功能和组装的了解。最近,这些突变体中的一些允许对衣藻中线粒体基因表达过程的研究知之甚少。在这次审查中,我们更新了有关呼吸成分的数据,特别关注了在其他生物体上确定的组装因子。此外,我们对线粒体或核基因失活的不同线粒体呼吸突变体进行了盘点。