Mitochondrial targeting signal is major determinant of mitochondrial localizing mRNA

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Mitochondria dysfunction has been implicated in Alzheimer's and other diseases, but the cellular mechanisms used to maintain mitochondria are only partially understood. Thus we investigated the transport of proteins into the mitochondria and quantitatively showed that a particular region of those proteins evolves faster than other proteins (Fukasawa et al. BMC Genomics 2014). In addition we investigated the localization of mRNA molecules in the vicinity of mitochondria. We did this by integrative statistical analysis of several published datasets. Based on the results of our analysis we propose a novel hypothesis -- that the longer it takes for proteins to be made (translation initiation), the more likely it is that they localize to the periphery of the mitochondria. By providing insights into the mechanisms responsible for maintenance of mitochondrial, in the future our results may contribute to advances in the prevention or treatment of mitochondria related disease.