The mitochondrial methylation potential gates mitoribosome assembly

Abstract

S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) is crucial for cellular processes, primarily serving as the principal methyl group donor of the cell and playing a key role in gene regulation and translation on the ribosome. Inside mitochondria, SAM-dependent methylations occur at several steps of gene expression, but their role and significance remain unclear. Using direct long-read RNA sequencing on mouse tissue and mouse embryonic fibroblasts, we demonstrate that the mitochondrial ribosomal gene cluster is not efficiently processed without mitochondrial SAM. This results in the accumulation of unprocessed ribosomal RNA precursors. Protein profiling of ribosome fractions revealed that these precursors are associated with processing and ribosome assembly factors, indicating stalling at an early stage. Structural analysis of the mitochondrial ribosome by cryogenic electron microscopy revealed that mitochondrial SAM is required during peptidyl transferase centre formation and mitochondrial ribosome assembly. Our data thus identify a critical role for methylation at two steps during mitochondrial gene expression.