TY - JOUR TI - Independent evolution of functionally exchangeable mitochondrial outer membrane import complexes AU - Vitali, Daniela G AU - Käser, Sandro AU - Kolb, Antonia AU - Dimmer, Kai S AU - Schneider, Andre AU - Rapaport, Doron A2 - Pfanner, Nikolaus VL - 7 PY - 2018 DA - 2018/06/20 SP - e34488 C1 - eLife 2018;7:e34488 DO - 10.7554/eLife.34488 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.34488 AB - Assembly and/or insertion of a subset of mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) proteins, including subunits of the main MOM translocase, require the fungi-specific Mim1/Mim2 complex. So far it was unclear which proteins accomplish this task in other eukaryotes. Here, we show by reciprocal complementation that the MOM protein pATOM36 of trypanosomes is a functional analogue of yeast Mim1/Mim2 complex, even though these proteins show neither sequence nor topological similarity. Expression of pATOM36 rescues almost all growth, mitochondrial biogenesis, and morphology defects in yeast cells lacking Mim1 and/or Mim2. Conversely, co-expression of Mim1 and Mim2 restores the assembly and/or insertion defects of MOM proteins in trypanosomes ablated for pATOM36. Mim1/Mim2 and pATOM36 form native-like complexes when heterologously expressed, indicating that additional proteins are not part of these structures. Our findings indicate that Mim1/Mim2 and pATOM36 are the products of convergent evolution and arose only after the ancestors of fungi and trypanosomatids diverged. KW - mitochondria KW - trypanosome KW - outer membrane KW - MIM complex KW - biogenesis JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -