A HOMOLOG OF A NUCLEAR-CODED IRON SULFUR PROTEIN SUBUNIT OF BOVINE MITOCHONDRIAL COMPLEX-I IS ENCODED IN CHLOROPLAST GENOMES

The chloroplast genomes of Marchantia polymorpha, Nicotiana tabacum, and Oryza sativa contain open reading frames (ORFs or potential genes) encoding homologues of some of the subunits of mitochondrial NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase (complex I). Seven of these subunits (ND1-ND4, ND4L, ND5, and ND6) are products of the mitochondrial genome, and two others (the 49- and 30-kDa components of the iron-sulfur protein fraction) are nuclear gene products. These findings have been taken to indicate the presence in chloroplasts of an enzyme related to complex I, possibly an NAD(P)H:plastoquinone oxidoreductase, participating in chlororespiration. This view is reinforced by the present work in which we have shown that chloroplast genomes encode a homologue of the 23-kDa subunit, another nuclear-encoded component of bovine complex I. The 23-kDa subunit is in the hydrophobic protein fraction of the enzyme, the residuum after removal of the flavoprotein and iron-sulfur protein fractions. The sequence motif CysXXCysXXCysXXXCysPro, which provides ligands for tetranuclear iron-sulfur centers in ferredoxins, occurs twice in its polypeptide chain and is evidence of two associated 4Fe-4S clusters. This is the only iron-sulfur protein identified so far in the hydrophobic protein fraction of complex I, and so it is possible that one of these centers is that known as N-2, the donor of electrons to ubiquinone. The sequence of the 23-kDa subunit is closely related to potential proteins, which also contain the cysteine-rich sequence motifs, encoded in the frxB ORFs in chloroplast genomes. FrxB is found in a cluster of ORFs in tobacco, liverwort, and rice, with genes encoding other homologues of complex I, arranged in the order 49 kDa, ND1, 23 kDa (frxB), ND6, ND4L, and ND4. Two ORFs encoding homologues of 30-kDa and ND3 subunits cluster at a second separate locus. Thus, chloroplast genomes contain homologues of at least ten components of mitochondrial complex I, with eight of them clustered at two separate loci.