A product of mitochondrial protein synthesis in rat liver mitochondria, characterized by a low molecular weight ( M , < 10000) and an unusually high hydrophobicity, has been identified as the dicyclohexylcarbodiimide-binding protein and as a peptide of the hydrophobic sector of the mitochondrial ATPase complex. The purified protein still possesses the ability to bind dicyclohexylcarbodiimide.Since the first report by Beechey et al. [l] that dicyclohexylcarbodiimide inhibits oxidative phosphorylation, there have been a number of reports on the isolation from mitochondria [2], chloroplasts [3] and bacteria [4,5j, of a small molecular weight protein capable of binding dicyclohexylcarbodiimide irreversibly and probably covalently. The dicyclohexylcarbodiimide-binding protein appears to be a subunit of the hydrophobic sector of the ATPase complex [6]. It is a proteolipid soluble in chloroform/methanol. In spite of a large amount of work on the chemical characterization of the dicyclohexylcarbodiimide-binding protein, little information is available on the biosynthesis of this protein in mitochondria. In Neurospora crassa, the dicyclohexylcarbodiimide-binding protein is synthetized outside of mitochondria on cytoplasmic ribosomes [7j. On the other hand, it has been suggested that in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the smallest component of the oligomycin-sensitive ATPase, subunit 9, which is synthetized on mitochondrial ribosomes, could be the component which interacts with rutamycin and dicyclohexylcarbodiimide [8].In a previous study, two low-molecular-weight products of mitochondrial protein synthesis were isolated from a chloroform/methanol extract of a trichloroacetic acid precipitate of rat liver mitochondria. They were characterized by an unusual hydrophobicity reflected by their behaviour on paper chromatography. Because of their chromatographic properties they were designated as fast-running products. The two products were further separated by thin-layer chromatography and referred to as fast-running Enzyme. ATP phosphohydrolase or ATPase (EC 3.6.1.3) product A and fast-running product B respectively [9]. In this paper, we show that fast-running product B of the mitochondrial protein synthesis is the dicyclohexylcarbodiimide-binding protein. Some of the data have been presented in an abstract form [lo].
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Chemicals
Procedures for Mitochondria1 PreparationsRat liver mitochondria were isolated from Wistar rats [ l l ] and resuspended in 0.25 M sucrose, 10 mM Tris-HC1, pH 7.4. They were washed twice in 0.25 M sucrose, 1 mM EDTA and 10 mM Tris-HCI, pH 7.4.Beef heart mitochondria were prepared according to Smith [12]. Submitochondrial particles were prepared by sonication of rat liver or beef heart mitochondria after dilution to a concentration of 10-15 mg protein in 0.25 M sucrose, 1 mM EDTA and 10 mM Tris-HC1, pH 7.4. The mitochondrial suspension was exposed to sonic oscillations in a Branson sonifier at 100 W for six periods of 30 s each, separated by 1-min intervals. The temperature ...