Mood disorders are serious diseases. Nevertheless, their pathophysiology is not sufficiently clarified. Biological markers that would facilitate the diagnosis or successful prediction of pharmacotherapy are still being sought. The aim of the study was to find out whether mitochondrial functions are affected by antidepressants, mood stabilizers and depression. Our research is based on recent hypotheses of mood disorders, the advanced monoamine hypothesis, the neurotrophic hypothesis, and the mitochondrial dysfunction hypothesis. We assume that impaired function of mitochondria leads to neuronal damage and can be related to the origin of mood disorders. Effects of antidepressants and mood stabilizers on mitochondrial functions can be related to their therapeutic or side effects. In vitro effects of pharmacologically different antidepressants and mood stabilizers on the activities of mitochondrial enzymes were measured in mitochondria isolated from pig brains (in vitro model). Activity of monoamine oxidase (MAO) isoforms was determined radiochemically, activities of other mitochondrial enzymes were measured spectrophotometrically. Overall activity of the system of oxidative phosphorylation was measured electrochemically using high- resolution respirometry. Methods were modified to measure the same...

ATP synthase represents the key enzyme of cellular energy provision and ATP synthase disorders belong to the most deleterious mitochondrial diseases affecting pediatric population. The aim of this thesis was to identify nuclear genetic defects and describe the pathogenic mechanism of altered biosynthesis of ATP synthase that leads to isolated deficiency of this enzyme manifesting as an early onset mitochondrial encephalo-cardiomyopathy. Studies in the group of 25 patients enabled identification of two new disease-causing nuclear genes responsible for ATP synthase deficiency. The first affected gene was TMEM70 that encodes an unknown mitochondrial protein. This protein was identified as a novel assembly factor of ATP synthase, first one specific for higher eukaryotes. TMEM70 protein of 21 kDa is located in mitochondrial inner membrane and it is absent in patient tissues. TMEM70 mutation was found in 23 patients and turned to be the most frequent cause of ATP synthase deficiency. Cell culture studies also revealed that enzyme defect leads to compensatory-adaptive upregulation of respiratory chain complexes III and IV due to posttranscriptional events. The second affected gene was ATP5E that encodes small structural epsilon subunit of ATP synthase. Replacement of conserved Tyr12 with Cys caused...

The complexes of the oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) system in the inner mitochondrial membrane are organised into structural and functional super-assemblies, so-called supercomplexes. This type of organisation enables substrate channelling and hence improves the overall OXPHOS efficiency. ATP synthase associates into dimers and higher oligomers. Within the supercomplex of ATP synthasome, it interacts with ADP/ATP translocase (ANT), which exchanges synthesised ATP for cytosolic ADP, and inorganic phosphate carrier (PiC), which imports phosphate into the mitochondrial matrix. The existence of this supercomplex is generally accepted. Experimental evidence is however still lacking. In this thesis, structural interactions between ATP synthase, ANT and PiC were studied in detail. In addition, the interdependence of their expression was examined either under physiological conditions in rat tissues or using model cell lines with ATP synthase deficiencies of different origin. Specifically, they included mutations in the nuclear genes ATP5E and TMEM70 that code for subunit ε and the ancillary factor of ATP synthase biogenesis TMEM70, respectively, and a microdeletion at the interface of genes MT-ATP6 and MT-COX3 that impairs the mitochondrial translation of both subunit a of ATP synthase and subunit Cox3...

Adaptation to chronic hypoxia provides cardioprotective effects. Molecular mechanism of this phenomenon is not yet completely understood, but it is known that cardiac mitochondria play an essential role in induction of protective effects. The purpose of this diploma thesis is to study effects of continuous normobaric hypoxia (CNH; 10 % O2, 21 days) on spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and conplastic strain that is derived from SHR. These animals have nuclear genome of SHR strain and mitochondrial genome of Brown Norway (BN) strain. Cardiac homogenate was used to measure enzymatic activity of malate dehydrogenase (MDH), citrate synthase (CS), NADH-cytochrome c oxidoreductase, succinate-cytochrome c oxidoreductase and cytochrome oxidase (COX). Using Western blot procedure the protein amount of antioxidant enzymes was measured - manganese superoxide dismutase and copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (MnSOD, Cu/ZnSOD), catalase and chosen subunits of oxidative phosphorylation complexes (Ndufa9, Sdha, Uqcrc2, COX-4, MTCO1, Atp5a1). Under normoxic conditions the conplastic strain has lower amount of complex IV subunit MTCO1 in comparison with SHR. This subunit is encoded by mitochondrial DNA and it is one of the seven protein-coding genes in conplastic strain that differ from SHR. Adaptation to hypoxia causes an...

Fanconi anemia is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutation in one of Fanconi genes and it is manifested by developmental abnormalities, bone marrow failure, predisposition to cancer, cellular sensitivity to cross-linking agents and many other symptoms. Proteins encoded by Fanconi genes and some other proteins are part of Fanconi anemia pathway (FA pathway), which is responsible for DNA repair of an interstrand cross-link (ICL). The repair by this pathway requires monoubiquitination of FANCD2, which is induced and regulated by ATR dependent FANCI phosphorylation. The FANCI phosphorylation initiates the FA pathway but the molecular mechanism of this initialization is not known. Furthermore the proper function of entire pathway requires both: sequence of phosphorylation events of FANCI and monoubiquitination of FANCI:FANCD2 complex . The principle of this work was to study molecular mechanism of initiation and regulation of FA pathway by FANCI phosphorylation. Therefore phosphomimetic mutants of FANCI have been created to investigate their role in processes leading to FANCD2 monoubiquitination. The main aim was to reveal how the phosphorylation of FANCI affects DNA binding and also DNA binding of FANCI:FANCD2 complex. Since both DNA and FANCI phosphorylation are required for proper FANCD2...

Mitochondrial disorders, with incidence 1:5000 live births children, are one of the most common metabolic diseases. Clinically, it is heterogeneous group of disorders caused by mutations in more than 250 genes. Diagnostic of patients with suspected mitochondrial disorder relies on broad spectrum of biochemical analysis. One of them is a measurement of Mitochondrial Energy Generating Capacity (MEGC). The principle of MEGC analysis is measuring oxidations rate of 14 C - labeled substrates in 10 different incubations. These incubations contain [1-14 C]pyruvate, [U-14 C]malate or [1,4-14 C]succinate, donors and acceptors of Acetyl-CoA and inhibitors of TCA cycle. The results of MEGC analysis provide a variety of information about mitochondrial energy metabolism (MEM) of individual in particular tissue. In diagnostic of patients with suspected mitochondrial disorder is MEGC routinely determined in skeletal muscle. The aim of this study is to optimize MEGC analysis for its use in cultures skin fibroblasts. In sum, MEGC analysis was performed in 23 patients with primary deficiency of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), in 7 patients with secondary deficiency of OXPHOS and in 15 controls cell lines. The results of MEGC in cultured skin fibroblasts were then compared with results of spectrophotometric...

TRPA1 is a thermosensitive ion channel from the ankyrin subfamily of Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) receptors. These proteins play essential roles in the transduction of wide variety of environmental and endogenous signals. TRPA1, which is abundantly expressed in primary nociceptive neurons, is an important transducer of various noxious and irritant stimuli and is also involved in the detection of temperature changes. Similarly to other TRP channels, TRPA1 is comprised of four subunits, each with six transmembrane segments (S1-S6), flanked by the cytoplasmic N- and C-terminal ends. In native tissues, TRPA1 is supposed to be regulated by multiple phosphorylation sites that underlie TRPA1 activity under physiological and various pathophysiological conditions. Using mutational approach, we predicted and explored the role of potential phosphorylation sites for protein kinase C in TRPA1 functioning. Our results identify candidate residues, at which phosho-mimicking mutations affected the channel's ability to respond to voltage and chemical stimuli, whereas the phospho-null mutations to alanine or glycine did not affect the channel activation. Particularly, we identify the serine 602 within the N-terminal ankyrin repeat domain 16, the substitution of which to aspartate completely abolished the TRPA1...

The Gram-negative aerobic coccobacillus Bordetella pertussis is one of the few exclusively human pathogens and the main causative agent of the respiratory infectious disease called pertussis, or whooping cough. Despite global vaccination programs, pertussis remains an important public-health burden and still accounts for over 100,000 infant deaths and over a dozen of millions of whooping cough cases every year. Substantial effort is devoted to studies on the mechanisms of action of virulence factors of B. pertussis, but the biology of interactions of B. pertussis with its human host remains largely underexplored. Evolution, genetics and adaptation of B. pertussis to the complex environment of human nasopharynx and the mechanisms enabling B. pertussis to overcome host innate and adaptive mucosal immune defenses, remain poorly understood. In such situations, unbiased exploratory omics approaches represent valuable tools for uncovering of unknown aspects of host-pathogen interactions and open the path to detailed analysis of virulence-underlying processes by mechanistic studies. In this thesis, I am presenting the results of three omics projects on B. pertussis biology that involved high-throughput proteomics. In the inital phosphoprotemics project, we analyzed the kinase signaling pathways hijacked...

MT nucleation from γ-tubulin complexes, located at centrosome, is an essential step in the formation of MT cytoskeleton. In mammalian cells, -tubulin is encoded by two genes. We functionally characterized two γ-tubulin proteins and have found that both are functionally equivalent. γ-Tubulin 2 is able to substitute for γ-tubulin 1 in MT nucleation. However, we revealed that unlike TUBG1, TUBG2 expression is downregulated in mouse preimplantation development. Mast cells represent effectors of the allergy reaction. Their activation by antigen induces number of cellular processes such as degranulation, proliferation and cytoskeleton rearrangements. The regulatory mechanisms of MT reorganization during mast cell activation are unknown. We identified new signaling proteins, GIT1 and PIX that interact with - tubulin. Depletion of GIT1 or PIX leads to changes in MT nucleation. GIT1 is phosphorylated on tyrosine and associates with γ-tubulin in a Ca2+ -dependent manner. Our data suggested a novel signaling pathway for MT rearrangement in mast cells where tyrosine kinase-activated GIT1 and βPIX work in concert with Ca2+ signaling to regulate MT nucleation. We tested the capability of GIT1 and PIX to influence -tubulin function in more cell types. We found out that GIT1/βPIX signaling proteins together...

Mitochondrial protein homeostasis is crucial for cellular function and integrity. It is ensured by many specific mitochondrial proteases with possible chaperone functions located across the various mitochondrial subcompartments. In the first part, we have focused on characterization of functional overlap and cooperativity of proteolytic subunits AFG3L2 and YME1L of the mitochondrial inner membrane complexes m- and i-AAA in HEK293 cells. The double AFG3L2/YME1L knockdown cells showed severe alteration in OPA1 protein processing, marked elevation in OMA1 protease and severe reduction in SPG7. Our results reveal cooperative and partly redundant involvement of AFG3L2 and YME1L in the maintenance of mitochondrial protein homeostasis and further emphasize their importance for mitochondrial and cellular function and integrity. The aim of the second part was to characterize the cellular function of LACE1 (lactation elevated 1) in mitochondrial protein homeostasis. LACE1 protein is a human homologue of yeast Afg1 (ATPase family gene 1) ATPase. We show that LACE1 is a mitochondrial integral membrane protein that exists as a part of three complexes of approximately 140, 400 and 500 kDa. We demonstrate that LACE1 mediates degradation of nuclear-encoded complex IV subunits COX4, COX5A and COX6A. Using affinity...