The 70-kDa heat shock proteins (Hsp70s) are ubiquitous molecular chaperones, which are present in all the ATP-containing compartments in the eukaryotic cell, where they perform diverse functions all with a common denominator: they use the energy of ATP hydrolysis to unfold, at least partially, various protein substrates (Goloubinoff and De Los Rios
2007; Sharma et al.
2010). The bacterial chaperone DnaK has long served as a prototype for the study of Hsp70 chaperones and its investigation provided important insights into the structure and function of this large group of proteins (Swain et al.
2007). Three types of chaperone activities have been described for bacterial DnaK: (1) passively preventing the aggregation of artificially unfolded proteins (holding function). (2) ATP-dependent refolding of chemically unfolded proteins to their native forms (Szabo et al.
1994). (3) The ATP-dependent reactivation of stable protein aggregates into native proteins. The last two functions reflect the ability of this chaperone system to act as a polypeptide unfoldase. In this capacity, Hsp70 specifically recognizes misfolded polypeptides, bind them with high affinity, uses the energy of ATP hydrolysis to unfold them, and releases low-affinity unfolded products that in turn can spontaneously refold to the native state (Sharma et al.
2010). In vitro, DnaK can perform this function when assisted by its two co-chaperones, a J-domain-containing protein (either DnaJ, CbpA, or DjlA; Genevaux et al.
2007) and the nucleotide exchange factor GrpE (Sharma et al.
2009). Specificity of the chaperone system is conferred primarily by the DnaJ co-chaperone, which recognizes and binds to a misfolded polypeptide (Hinault et al.
2010), followed by the binding of the polypeptide to a “low-affinity” DnaK, which becomes entrapped upon hydrolyzing ATP. GrpE, acting as an ADP release factor, accelerates discharge of the unfolded polypeptide and spontaneous refolding to the native state (Sharma et al.
2010).
Yeast mitochondria harbor three Hsp70 homologues named Ssc1, Ssq1, and Ecm10 (for sequence alignments see Supplemental Fig.
1). Ssc1 was shown to be a key player in mediating protein import into the mitochondrial matrix. This particular function of the chaperone occurs through association of the ATP-bound state to the TIM23 import channel, by way of the specific protein anchors, Tim44 and PAM16/18. Dissociation of ADP-bound Ssc1 from the anchors takes place as soon as it has locked onto an incoming polypeptide (De Los Rios et al.
2006; D’Silva et al.
2004; Neupert and Herrmann
2007). Ssc1 plays an additional important role in mediating the refolding of matrix-localized proteins, a function which is carried out with the help of two matrix-localized co-chaperones Mdj1 and Mge1, which are homologous to the
Escherichia coli DnaJ and GrpE, respectively (Deloche et al.
1997; Horst et al.
1997; Liu et al.
2001; Rowley et al.
1994) (Supplemental Fig.
2). Using purified proteins, it was shown that Ssc1 can mediate ATP-dependent disaggregation and proper refolding of stably misfolded reporter proteins, when supplemented with bacterial DnaJ and GrpE (De Los Rios et al.
2006). Ssq1 is known to play a role in the biogenesis of iron sulfur clusters and the function of Ecm10 is still unclear (Baumann et al.
2000; Dutkiewicz et al.
2003).
The human Hsp70 family consists of eight members that differ in their amino acid sequences, expression levels, and cellular localizations (Daugaard et al.
2007). Six Hsp70 chaperones are located mainly in the cytosol and in the nucleus; one Hsp70 is located in the lumen of the ER and mortalin and is found in the mitochondrial matrix. Thus, in human mitochondria, a single Hsp70, mortalin, must take over all functions that are performed by its three homologues in yeast mitochondria (Bhattacharyya et al.
1995; Daugaard et al.
2007; Mizzen et al.
1989; Wadhwa et al.
1993). Mortalin shares high identity with other members of the Hsp70 family, including
E. coli DnaK (51%) and
Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ssc1 (65%) (Supplemental Fig.
1). Interestingly, mortalin was also detected in extra-mitochondrial compartments, which reflects the ability of this protein to perform additional functions that are not related to protein folding (reviewed in Kaul et al.
2007).
Homologues for Mdj1 and Mge1 were found in humans and named Tid1 and hMge1, respectively (Supplemental Fig.
2). Human Tid1 encodes for two mitochondrial matrix-localized splice variants, one of 43 (Tid1-L) and one of 40 kDa (Tid1-S). Both variants have an N-terminal mitochondrial signal. However, they differ in their carboxyl terminus tails: Tid1-L has 33 amino acids, whereas Tid1-S has only six amino acids (Syken et al.
1999). Several lines of evidence indicate that both Tid1 isoforms are functional homologues of Mdj1: (1) they contain the characteristic J-domain of the 40-kDa heat shock protein (Hsp40) family; (2) both isoforms were co-immunoprecipitated with mortalin (Syken et al.
1999); and (3) Tid1-L and Tid1-S were both able to compensate for an Mdj1 deletion in yeast. This capacity was dependent on the presence of an intact J-domain and a mitochondrial targeting sequence (Lu et al.
2006). Tid1 isoforms were also found to be involved in extra-mitochondrial protein interactions and functions (see below). These functions include regulation of cell death, proliferation, and signal transduction (Mitra et al.
2009; Syken et al.
1999). It was shown that the two isoforms differ in their non-mitochondrial functions due to differences in their abilities to interact with cytosolic and nuclear proteins (Lu et al.
2006). Moreover, It was demonstrated that expression of the long variant increased apoptosis, while expression of the short variant suppressed apoptosis (Syken et al.
1999). Interestingly, Tid1-L was shown to be more stable in the cytosol as compared with Tid1-S, with a longer cytosolic residency time prior to mitochondrial import (Lu et al.
2006).
Molecular chaperones are key players in maintaining cellular protein homeostasis. Consistent with this role, several studies have shown that mortalin may be implicated in the progression of neurodegenerative and protein aggregation disorders, such as Parkinson and Alzheimer (Burbulla et al.
2010; De Mena et al.
2009; Deocaris et al.
2008; Deocaris et al.
2007; Koren et al.
2009; Shi et al.
2008). Moreover, when mammalian mitochondria are challenged with an imported protein with a strong tendency to form aggregates, the mitochondrial unfolded protein response (mUPR) is activated (Aldridge et al.
2007; Zhao et al.
2002). mUPR upregulated the ClpP protease and the cpn60, cpn10, and Tid1 chaperones but not mortalin.
The strong cyto-protective, even curing effects of the Hsp70–Hsp40 chaperones systems, both in the cytoplasm and in mitochondria can be attributed to their ability to act as polypeptide unfolding enzymes that can target cytotoxic misfolded and aggregated protein conformers (Sharma et al.
2009; Sharma et al.
2010). In organisms and cellular compartments that also express Hsp100/ClpB homologues, the Hsp70–Hsp40 unfoldase chaperone systems benefit from a powerful synergic mechanism of forceful disaggregation that may act both upstream and downstream to the polypeptide unfoldase activity of Hsp70 chaperones (Glover and Lindquist
1998; Goloubinoff et al.
1999; Weibezahn et al.
2005). Thus, in the yeast cytoplasm, a large number of Hsp70–Hsp40 can collaborate with the ClpB-like (Hsp104) disaggregating co-chaperone to prevent the formation of misfolded species and even solubilize-resistant prions. Similarly, yeast mitochondria can use the unfolding abilities of Ssc1, which together with Mdj1 can collaborate with the ClpB homologue, Hsp78, at the active unfolding and disaggregation of potentially toxic misfolded protein conformers (von Janowsky et al.
2006).
Interestingly, mammalian cytoplasm contains no Hsp104 and mammalian mitochondria contain a single Hsp70 (mortalin) and no ClpB-like disaggregating co-chaperones. Notably, up to date it remained unclear whether mortalin in cooperation with Tid1 can reactivate protein aggregates. Here, we used purified components and found that mortalin and both Tid1 variants can mediate the reactivation of stable protein aggregates, implying that mortalin can serve as a unique scavenger of toxic protein conformers in human mitochondrial making it an attractive target for therapies against protein conformational diseases.