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Human Elp3/Kat9 is a mitochondrial tRNA modifying enzyme

Boutoual, R.; Hyunsun, J.; Heckenbach, I.; Tiwari, R.; Kasler, H.; Lerner, C. A.; Shah, S.; Schilling, B.; Calvanese, V.; Rardin, M. J.; Scheibye-Knudsen, M.; Verdin, E.

2022-03-24 molecular biology
10.1101/2022.03.24.485634 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Post-translational modifications, such as lysine acetylation, regulate the activity of diverse proteins across many cellular compartments. Protein deacetylation in mitochondria is catalyzed by the enzymatic activity of the NAD+-dependent deacetylase sirtuin 3 (SIRT3), however it remains unclear whether corresponding mitochondrial acetyltransferases exist. We used a bioinformatics approach to search for mitochondrial proteins with an acetyltransferase catalytic domain, and identified a novel splice variant of ELP3 (mt-ELP3) of the elongator complex, which localizes to the mitochondrial matrix in mammalian cells. Unexpectedly, mt-ELP3 does not mediate mitochondrial protein acetylation but instead induces a post-transcriptional modification of mitochondrial-transfer RNAs (mt-tRNAs). Overexpression of mt-ELP3 leads to the protection of mt-tRNAs against the tRNA-specific RNase angiogenin, increases mitochondrial translation, and furthermore increases expression of OXPHOS complexes. This study thus identifies mt-ELP3 as a non-canonical mt-tRNA modifying enzyme.

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