Transcription and replication of animal mitochondrial DNAs

The development of in vitro transcription and replication systems has allowed the identification of promoter sequences and origins of replication for several animal mtDNAs. As a consequence, the necessary reagents and basic information are available to permit the characterization of transacting factors that are required for transcription and replication. All of the animal trans-acting species purified at this time are known or reasoned to be nuclear gene products. There is now the opportunity to learn how these nuclear genes are regulated and the mechanisms that are utilized for the import of their products into the organelle. With regard to import, the human transcription factor mtTF1 appears to have an amino-terminal sequence characteristic of other imported mitochondrial proteins (Parisi and Clayton, 1991). An interesting issue is the degree to which fundamental features of mtDNA replication and transcription are conserved between species. With regard to animal mtDNAs, there is very little in the way of conservation of DNA sequence at the promoters and origins of replication. The exceptions to this are the presence of a characteristic stem-loop L-strand origin of replication sequence in vertebrates [except for chicken mtDNA (Desjardins and Morais, 1990)] and the general presence of CSBs II and III (and to a lesser extent CSB I) in most higher animal mtDNAs. Because mtDNA promoters are not highly conserved, it is perhaps not surprising that general cross-species transcription does not occur, except for very limited examples of closely related species and sequences (Chang et al., 1985b). Using crude mtRNA polymerase holoenzyme preparations, there is no specific transcriptional initiation when proteins from human mitochondria are used with mouse mtDNA promoter templates, and vice versa. However, in contrast to this overall observation, purified fractions of human or mouse mtTF1 can be exchanged and shown to function across species boundaries (Fisher et al., 1989). The ability of mitochondrial mtTF1-type proteins to operate across even greater evolutionary distances was suggested by the ability of human and yeast proteins to recognize some mitochondrial promoter sequences in common (Fisher et al., 1992). More recent studies suggest that human mtTF1 can substitute for its yeast homolog in vivo, and thereby perform at least the most critical functions required to maintain yeast mtDNA in the cell (M.A. Parisi, B. Xu, and D.A. Clayton, submitted for publication). The other sites of conserved macromolecular interactions are related to the two origins of DNA replication.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)