Human Mitochondrial Proteome Differences at the Tissue Level
Advisor Information
Dhundy Bastola
Location
UNO Criss Library, Room 232
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
7-3-2014 11:45 AM
End Date
7-3-2014 12:00 PM
Abstract
Mitochondria are organelles in all human cells which provide energy for cellular activities. They are known as the powerhouse of the cell. Dysfunction in mitochondria is linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. We do not have perfect knowledge of the workings of mitochondria. The most respected resource of human protein knowledge lists approximately one thousand proteins as being human mitochondrial proteins. The best estimates of the actual number of proteins in human mitochondria are approximately twelve hundred to fifteen hundred. Thus there is a significant gap in knowledge of the proteins. There is evidence that even with the known human mitochondrial proteins, that there is variance at the tissue level. An experiment was conducted in 2003 examining the protein content in twelve healthy human tissues, and publically available results. These results were examined with specific filtering for mitochondrial proteins in the tissues. Preliminary results show that approximately six hundred mitochondrial proteins were found in all tissues. However, another four hundred proteins were found in only subsets of the twelve tissues, and some proteins were found only in specific tissues. Research is being conducted to characterize these tissue-specific differences, and to relate them to the function of the tissues that they are found in. A metabolic pathway analysis of the proteins is also in progress.
Human Mitochondrial Proteome Differences at the Tissue Level
UNO Criss Library, Room 232
Mitochondria are organelles in all human cells which provide energy for cellular activities. They are known as the powerhouse of the cell. Dysfunction in mitochondria is linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. We do not have perfect knowledge of the workings of mitochondria. The most respected resource of human protein knowledge lists approximately one thousand proteins as being human mitochondrial proteins. The best estimates of the actual number of proteins in human mitochondria are approximately twelve hundred to fifteen hundred. Thus there is a significant gap in knowledge of the proteins. There is evidence that even with the known human mitochondrial proteins, that there is variance at the tissue level. An experiment was conducted in 2003 examining the protein content in twelve healthy human tissues, and publically available results. These results were examined with specific filtering for mitochondrial proteins in the tissues. Preliminary results show that approximately six hundred mitochondrial proteins were found in all tissues. However, another four hundred proteins were found in only subsets of the twelve tissues, and some proteins were found only in specific tissues. Research is being conducted to characterize these tissue-specific differences, and to relate them to the function of the tissues that they are found in. A metabolic pathway analysis of the proteins is also in progress.