Team: Metabolism and Trafficking of RNA within the plant cell
Team leaders: Laurence DROUARD & Anne-Marie DUCHENE
PhD supervisor: Anne-Marie DUCHENE
Email: anne-marie.duchene@ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr
Mitochondria are essential organelles in eukaryotes. While their primary function is to synthesize ATP through oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondria are involved in numerous other metabolic pathways and are capable of adapting to the needs of the cell and responding to various stresses. Mitochondria are not static; they are constantly moving and changing shape. Mitochondrial dynamics generally refer to mitochondrial fusion, fission, mitophagy, and mitochondrial trafficking. Dysfunction of these dynamics can lead to dysfunction of mitochondrial functions, and a number of pathologies are associated with them.
Although mitochondrial dynamics is a fundamental cellular process, this mechanism is still largely unknown in higher plants. Most of knowledge is limited to a few proteins that have been identified as being involved in mitochondrial fission.
The aim of this work is to study mitochondrial fission in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. To this end, global interactome approaches (co-immunoprecipitation and proximity labeling with Turbo ID, combined with mass spectrometry) will be developed. This work should allow to establish the relationships between the different proteins already known and to identify new partners. The second part of the thesis will be devoted to the validation of the candidates thus identified.
This work should lead to a better understanding of the mitochondrial fission process. It should also be a springboard to address the fine-tuning balance between fission and fusion and, more broadly, mitochondrial dynamics in plants.
Keywords: Mitochondria, fission, plant, co-immunoprecipitation, TurboID, mass spectrometry, confocal microscopy
Relevant publications:
– Extensive import of nucleus-encoded tRNAs into chloroplasts of the photosynthetic lycophyte, Selaginella kraussiana, Berrissou et al, PNAS (2024) 121(46) : e2412221121.
– FRIENDLY is an RNA binding protein associated with cytosolic ribosomes at the mitochondrial surface. Hemono et al, Plant J. (2022), 12:309-321
– The interactome of CLUH reveals its association to SPAG5 and its co-translational proximity to mitochondrial proteins. Hemono M et al, BMC Biol. (2022) 20:13
Financial support of this subject is guaranteed by the Research Cluster / LabEx MitoCross
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