Localizing Proteins in the Cell from Their Phylogenetic Profiles

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 97; no. 22; pp. 12115 - 12120
• Main Authors: Marcotte, Edward M., Xenarios, Ioannis, Van der Bliek, Alexander M., Eisenberg, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 24-10-2000; National Acad Sciences; National Academy of Sciences; The National Academy of Sciences
• Subjects: Algorithms; Animals; Biological Sciences; Caenorhabditis elegans; Caenorhabditis elegans - genetics; Caenorhabditis elegans - metabolism; Eukaryotic cells; Fungal proteins; Gels; Genetics; Genomes; Membrane Proteins - metabolism; Mitochondria; Mitochondrial genes; Molecular biology; Organelles; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Protein metabolism; Protein Sorting Signals - physiology; Proteins; Saccharomyces cerevisiae - genetics; Saccharomyces cerevisiae - metabolism; Subcellular Fractions - metabolism; Yeasts
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.220399497

We introduce a computational method for identifying subcellular locations of proteins from the phylogenetic distribution of the homologs of organellar proteins. This method is based on the observation that proteins localized to a given organelle by experiments tend to share a characteristic phylogenetic distribution of their homologs--a phylogenetic profile. Therefore any other protein can be localized by its phylogenetic profile. Application of this method to mitochondrial proteins reveals that nucleus-encoded proteins previously known to be destined for mitochondria fall into three groups: prokaryote-derived, eukaryote-derived, and organism-specific (i.e., found only in the organism under study). Prokaryote-derived mitochondrial proteins can be identified effectively by their phylogenetic profiles. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 361 nucleus-encoded mitochondrial proteins can be identified at 50% accuracy with 58% coverage. From these values and the proportion of conserved mitochondrial genes, it can be inferred that ≈ 630 genes, or 10% of the nuclear genome, is devoted to mitochondrial function. In the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, we estimate that there are ≈ 660 nucleus-encoded mitochondrial genes, or 4% of its genome, with ≈ 400 of these genes contributed from the prokaryotic mitochondrial ancestor. The large fraction of organism-specific and eukaryote-derived genes suggests that mitochondria perform specialized roles absent from prokaryotic mitochondrial ancestors. We observe measurably distinct phylogenetic profiles among proteins from different subcellular compartments, allowing the general use of prokaryotic genomes in learning features of eukaryotic proteins.