Mitochondria are the energy-providing organelles of non-photosynthetic eukaryotic cells. They contain their own translation machinery of dual, mitochondrial (mt) and nuclear genetic origin, responsible for synthesis of the key subunits of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. In mitochondria translation is the main control point of gene expression and a frequent target of mt human disease. To explore these processes the fission yeast
Schizosaccharomyces pombe is an excellent model of human cells. During my PhD new general and specific factors involved in mt translation in S.pombe were discovered or analysed e.g. mtRF1, mtRRF, Cbp6Sp/Sc and Mss51Sp. In parallel, a genome-wide study of the PPR protein family revealed that eight members are involved in the regulation of mt gene expression. Further, several strategies were devised to set up a translational reporter gene in S.pombe mitochondria by biolistic transformation, a method which has never been carried out in S.pombe before ...