Mitochondrial Transcription Termination Factor Proteins (MTERF)

Human Mitochondrial Transcription Termination Factor (MTERF) interaction partners

1. MTERF1 has the ability to accommodate alternate active conformations.

2. It has been demonstrated that MTERF1 arrests mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication with distinct polarity whereby MTERF1 acts as a directional contra-helicase, blocking mtDNA unwinding by the mitochondrial helicase TWINKLE.

3. Studies indicate that the structure of the mitochondrial transcription termination factor (MTERF1) provides insight into the mechanism of binding, recognition of the termination sequence and the conformational changes involved in mediating termination.

4. Single nucleotide polymorphism in MTERF gene is associated with epithelial ovarian cancer.

5. data suggested that hMTERF4 is an essential factor for cell proliferation, which is probably modulated by mitochondrial transcription to promote cell proliferation

6. Data show that mTERF protein levels materially affect the amount of readthrough transcription on the antisense strand of mtDNA, whilst the effects on sense-strand transcripts are complex, and suggest the influence of compensatory mechanisms.

7. Presented are the crystal structures of human mitochondrial regulator MTERF, a transcription termination factor also implicated in replication pausing, in complex with double-stranded DNA oligonucleotides containing the tRNA(Leu)(UUR) gene sequence.

8. The structure indicates that upon sequence recognition MTERF1 unwinds the DNA molecule, promoting eversion of three nucleotides.

9. mTERF mRNA levels were higher in elite athletes compared with moderately active subjects

10. mTERF exists in mitochondria in two forms, an active monomer and an inactive large size complex

11. monomeric human mTERF is fully active in its non-phosphorylated form and that the protein does not require additional cellular factors to terminate mitochondrial transcription in vitro

12. analysis of DNA light-strand preferential recognition of human mitochondria transcription termination factor mTERF

13. Results indicate a role for mTERF in mtDNA replication, in addition to its role in transcription.

Fruit Fly (Drosophila melanogaster) Mitochondrial Transcription Termination Factor (MTERF) interaction partners

1. mTerf5 knockdown led to enhanced replication pausing at mTTF binding sites, a decrease in fragile replication intermediates containing single-stranded segments, and the disappearance of species containing segments of RNA/DNA hybrid

2. The first ever-obtained evidence for an in vivo role of an animal mitochondrial transcription termination factor.

3. DmTTF might play multiple roles in the mtDNA transcription process, for which different levels of the protein with respect to mtRNApol are required.