Mitochondrial Voltage-Dependent Anion Channels Are Involved in Maintaining Reactive Oxygen Species Homeostasis, Oxidative and Salt Stress Tolerance in Yeast.

Voltage-dependent anion channels (VDACs) are conserved proteins of the mitochondria. We have functionally compared VDACs using and M3 yeast system. VDAC (1, 2, and 4) were able to restore growth in elevated temperature, in oxidative and salt stresses, whereas VDAC3 only partially rescued in these conditions. The ectopic expression of (1, 2, 3, and 4) in mutant yeast recapitulated the mitochondrial membrane potential thus, enabled it to maintain reactive oxygen species homeostasis. Overexpression of these VDACs ( in M3 strain did not display any synergistic or antagonistic activity with the native yeast VDAC1 (ScVDAC1). Collectively, our data suggest that VDACs are involved in regulating respiration, reactive oxygen species homeostasis, and stress tolerance in yeast.