Defining the lipidome of Arabidopsis leaf mitochondria

Specific lipid complement and lipid biosynthesis capacity

authored by

Yi-Tse Liu, Jennifer Senkler, Cornelia Herrfurth, Hans-Peter Braun, Ivo Feussner

Abstract

Mitochondria are often considered as the power stations of the cell, playing critical roles in various biological processes such as cellular respiration, photosynthesis, stress responses, and programmed cell death. To maintain the structural and functional integrities of mitochondria, it is crucial to achieve a defined membrane lipid composition between different lipid classes wherein specific proportions of individual lipid species are present. Although mitochondria are capable of self-synthesizing a few lipid classes, many phospholipids are synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum and transferred to mitochondria via membrane contact sites, as mitochondria are excluded from the vesicular transportation pathway. However, knowledge on the capability of lipid biosynthesis in mitochondria and the precise mechanism of maintaining the homeostasis of mitochondrial lipids is still scarce. Here we describe the lipidome of mitochondria isolated from Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) leaves, including the molecular species of glycerolipids, sphingolipids, and sterols, to depict the lipid landscape of mitochondrial membranes. In addition, we define proteins involved in lipid metabolism by proteomic analysis and compare our data with mitochondria from cell cultures since they still serve as model systems. Proteins putatively localized to the membrane contact sites are proposed based on the proteomic results and online databases. Collectively, our results suggest that leaf mitochondria are capable—with the assistance of membrane contact site-localized proteins—of generating several lipid classes including phosphatidylethanola-mines, cardiolipins, diacylgalactosylglycerols, and free sterols. We anticipate our work to be a foundation to further investigate the functional roles of lipids and their involvement in biochemical reactions in plant mitochondria.

Organisation(s)

Section Plant Molecular Biology and Plant Proteomics

External Organisation(s)

University of Göttingen

Type

Article

Journal

Plant Physiology

Volume

191

Pages

2185-2203

No. of pages

19

ISSN

0032-0889

Publication date

04.2023

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiad035 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.07.14.500104 (Access: Open)