UC San Diego

Mitochondrial-localized mRNAs have implications in various neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s Disease. Recent findings show that in yeast, certain mRNAs exhibit different localization to the mitochondria that is dependent on the switch from fermentative growth conditions to respiratory growth conditions. This localization is accompanied by an increase in both mRNA number and protein expression levels. We investigated if these increased levels of mRNA and protein expression were due to transcription or translation through RT-qPCR and FACS. We also explored genes that are essential to protein expression at the outer membrane of the mitochondria through a genetic screen that utilized microscopy and image analysis. We found that the increased mRNA and protein expression levels are mostly due to transcription of mRNAs. Furthermore, we identified three genes that are essential for protein expression at the mitochondria, including fzo1, om45, and rps26b.