Pantothenate is required in Neurospora crassa for assembly of subunit peptides of cytochrome c oxidase and ATPase/ATP synthase.

One polypeptide subunit of cytochrome c oxidase (EC 1.9.3.1) and two subunits of the ATPase/ATP synthase (EC 3.6.1.34) in mitochondria of Neurospora crassa are covalently modified with a derivative of pantothenic acid. In asexual spores of a pantothenate auxotroph of Neurospora, deprivation of pantothenic acid blocked the increase of the specific activities of cytochrome c oxidase and the ATPase above the basal activities in the dormant spores. Under cellular panthothenate deprivation, all the subunit peptides of these two enzymes apparently were synthesized and accumulated in the mitochondria, but these subunits were not assembled into normal complexes, and 55Fe-labeled heme a was incorporated into immunoprecipitable cytochrome c oxidase to a very low extent. In pantothenate-supplemented cells, the pantothenate derivative apparently is attached to the free unassembled subunits and appears not to be present in the assembled enzymes. It is likely that cellular deprivation of pantothenate, resulting in failure to modify the three subunit peptides, causes an interruption of the assembly pathway of cytochrome c oxidase and the ATPase/ATP synthase.