A leucine zipper protein of mitochondrial origin

Sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins are characterised by short coiled-coil structural domains classified as zinc finger/RING finger, leucine zipper (L-Zip) or helix-loop-helix (HLH) motifs. The L-Zip proteins are defined by a pattern of at least four leucine (L) residues repeated every seventh amino acid that mediates protein dimerisation through the formation of parallel alpha-helical dimers. Usually the zipper is incorporated into a helix-loop-helix conformation called the basic helix-loop-helix-leucine zipper (bHLH/Zip). To date, all of the several hundred proteins reported as containing the L-Zip and/or bHLH/Zip motifs are nuclear-encoded. No leucine zipper polypeptide has, hitherto, been reported as mitochondrial in origin. Here we report such a polypeptide, the nicotinamide dehydrogenase subunit 4L (nad4L). We first identified this in human blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma (phylum Platyhelminthes; class Trematoda) but show that this is a common feature in other eucaryotes as well. Therefore, in addition to their well recognised role in oxidative phosphorylation, nad4L proteins may be pivotally involved in a range of other biological processes such as transcription and/or replication activation or as signal transmitters in communication with the nucleus and other cellular organelles. This may indicate a link between transcription regulation and respiration in mitochondria. We have also identified L-Zip-like motifs in nuoK, the procaryotic equivalent of the nad4L mitochondrial protein.