线粒体转录终止因子(mTERF)蛋白家族的研究进展

Advances of mTERF Protein Family

线粒体基因的表达调控与线粒体的功能密切相关。线粒体转录终止因子(mitochondrial transcription termination factors,mTERFs)具有与线粒体核酸结合的结构域,参与线粒体基因的复制、转录及翻译。由于线粒体基因与人类线粒体疾病密切相关,因此受到广泛关注。动物中mTERFs分为四类亚家族,均定位于线粒体,每类mTERF蛋白所含mTERF结构域的数量与位置不同,功能各异。相比动物,植物中的mTERF类蛋白的研究相对滞后,为多基因家族。已报导的mTERF蛋白参与植物的发育及胁迫响应,具有重要的生物功能,但仍有很多mTERF家族成员的功能及调控机制仍不清楚。目前有关植物mTERFs的研究,对探讨作物中mTERFs成员功能、提高作物抗性及产量均具有重要意义。

The function of mitochondria is associated with its gene expression regulation. Mitochondrial tran scription termination factors （mTERFs） bind to nucleic acid by mTERF domain and are involved in replica- tion, transcription and translation of mitochondrial DNA. In metazoan, four mTERF subfamilies with various numbers and sites of mTERF motifs have been found to be located in mitochondria. They play important roles in regulation of mitochondrial genes and are associated with mitochondrial disease. Meanwhile, a large number of mTERFs have been detected in plant. Most of their functions and characters are still unknown, though some of them have been reported to participate on plant mTERFs will provide insight into functions of tance and yield. in development and stress response. The researches the crop mTERFs, as well as increasing crop resis-