Revised transmembrane orientation of the NADH:quinone oxidoreductase subunit NuoA.

NuoA is a small membrane spanning subunit of respiratory chain NADH:quinone oxidoreductase (complex I). Unlike the other complex I core protein subunits, the NuoA protein has no known homologue in other enzyme systems. The transmembrane orientation of NuoA cannot be unambiguously predicted, due to the small size of the polypeptide and the varying distribution of charged amino acid residues in NuoA from different organisms. Novel analyses of NuoA from Escherichia coli complex I expressed as fusion proteins to cytochrome c and to alkaline phosphatase demonstrated that the c-terminal end of the polypeptide is localized in the bacterial cytoplasm, in contrast to what was previously reported for the homologous NQO7 subunit from Paracoccus denitrificans complex I

Structure and function of the C-terminal domain of MrpA in the Bacillus subtilis Mrp-antiporter complex--the evolutionary progenitor of the long horizontal helix in complex I.

MrpA and MrpD are homologous to NuoL, NuoM and NuoN in complex I over the first 14 transmembrane helices. In this work, the C-terminal domain of MrpA, outside this conserved area, was investigated. The transmembrane orientation was found to correspond to that of NuoJ in complex I. We have previously demonstrated that the subunit NuoK is homologous to MrpC. The function of the MrpA C-terminus was tested by expression in a previously used Bacillus subtilis model system. At neutral pH, the truncated MrpA still worked, but at pH 8.4, where Mrp-complex formation is needed for function, the C-terminal domain of MrpA was absolutely required