Baertling Fabian, Sánchez-Caballero Laura, van den Brand Mariël A M, Wintjes Liesbeth T, Brink Maaike, van den Brandt Frans A, Wilson Callum, Rodenburg Richard J T, Nijtmans Leo G J
Department of Pediatrics, Radboud Center for Mitochondrial Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of General Pediatrics, Neonatology and Pediatric Cardiology, University Children's Hospital Duesseldorf, Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany.
Eur J Hum Genet. 2017 Nov;25(11):1273-1277. doi: 10.1038/ejhg.2017.133. Epub 2017 Aug 30.
Mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I consists of 44 different subunits and can be subgrouped into three functional modules: the Q-, the P- and the N-module. NDUFAF4 (C6ORF66) is an assembly factor of complex I that associates with assembly intermediates of the Q-module. Via exome sequencing, we identified a homozygous missense variant in a complex I-deficient patient with Leigh syndrome. Supercomplex analysis in patient fibroblasts revealed specifically altered stoichiometry. Detailed assembly analysis of complex I, indicative of all of its assembly routes, showed an accumulation of parts of the P- and the N-module but not the Q-module. Lentiviral complementation of patient fibroblasts with wild-type NDUFAF4 rescued complex I deficiency and the assembly defect, confirming the causal role of the variant. Our report on the second family affected by an NDUFAF4 variant further characterizes the phenotypic spectrum and sheds light into the role of NDUFAF4 in mitochondrial complex I biogenesis.
线粒体呼吸链复合体I由44个不同的亚基组成,可细分为三个功能模块:Q模块、P模块和N模块。NDUFAF4(C6ORF66)是复合体I的一个组装因子,与Q模块的组装中间体相关联。通过外显子组测序,我们在一名患有 Leigh 综合征的复合体I缺陷患者中鉴定出一个纯合错义变体。对患者成纤维细胞进行的超复合体分析显示化学计量比发生了特异性改变。对复合体I进行的详细组装分析(指示其所有组装途径)表明,P模块和N模块的部分组件出现了积累,但Q模块没有。用野生型NDUFAF4对患者成纤维细胞进行慢病毒互补挽救了复合体I缺陷和组装缺陷,证实了该变体的致病作用。我们关于第二个受NDUFAF4变体影响的家族的报告进一步描述了表型谱,并阐明了NDUFAF4在线粒体复合体I生物发生中的作用。