[19] Mitochondrial receptor complex from Neurospora crassa and Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Publisher Summary The identification of the mitochondrial receptor complex in yeast and N. crassa may be viewed as a paradigm of how biochemical approaches aimed at the study of protein–protein interactions can be successfully used for characterizing the different components of a protein complex, once the first component has been identified. Structural studies of the mitochondrial receptor complex will provide an enormous wealth of information on the molecular details involved in the interaction among the different components of the complex and between these components and the precursor proteins. The development of optical biosensor- based methodologies for studying protein–protein interactions will provide additional tools for this kind of molecular analysis. As the ultimate goal, the reconstitution of the fully functional translocation machinery into artificial lipid vesicles from purified complex components should provide detailed mechanistic information about the process of the translocation of precursor proteins into mitochondria.