What is it about?
Putting the carnitine shuttle in reverse
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Why is it important?
This is, to my knowledge, the first clear demonstration that the mitochondrial carnitine shuttle in a eukaryotic cell can mediate the export of acetyl units from the mitochondrial matrix to the cytosol. This insight provides a basis for new strategies for ATP-efficient synthesis of cytosolic acetyl-CoA as a precursor for yeast-based production of biofuels and chemicals.
Perspectives
Since we studied the physiology of pyruvate-decarboxylase-negative mutants of S. cerevisiae in the 1990's and showed that pyruvate decarboxylase is required for synthesis of cytosolic acetyl-CoA, I have been fascinated by the question why, apparently, the carnitine shuttle cannot simply export acetyl-CoA from the mitochondria to the cytosol. Here, we finally show that several genetic changes are required to enable the carnitine shuttle to operate in this direction.
Prof Jack T Pronk
Technische Universiteit Delft
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Requirements for Carnitine Shuttle-Mediated Translocation of Mitochondrial Acetyl Moieties to the Yeast Cytosol, mBio, May 2016, ASM Journals,
DOI: 10.1128/mbio.00520-16.
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