{"doi":"10.3390/ijms25031415","title":"Unique Interactions of the Small Translocases of the Mitochondrial Inner Membrane (Tims) in Trypanosoma brucei","abstract":"The infectious agent for African trypanosomiasis, Trypanosoma brucei, possesses a unique and essential translocase of the mitochondrial inner membrane, known as the TbTIM17 complex. TbTim17 associates with six small TbTims (TbTim9, TbTim10, TbTim11, TbTim12, TbTim13, and TbTim8/13). However, the interaction patterns of these smaller TbTims with each other and TbTim17 are not clear. Through yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) and co-immunoprecipitation analyses, we demonstrate that all six small TbTims interact with each other. Stronger interactions were found among TbTim8/13, TbTim9, and TbTim10. However, TbTim10 shows weaker associations with TbTim13, which has a stronger connection with TbTim17. Each of the small TbTims also interacts strongly with the C-terminal region of TbTim17. RNAi studies indicated that among all small TbTims, TbTim13 is most crucial for maintaining the steady-state levels of the TbTIM17 complex. Further analysis of the small TbTim complexes by size exclusion chromatography revealed that each small TbTim, except for TbTim13, is present in ~70 kDa complexes, possibly existing in heterohexameric forms. In contrast, TbTim13 is primarily present in the larger complex (&gt;800 kDa) and co-fractionates with TbTim17. Altogether, our results demonstrate that, relative to other eukaryotes, the architecture and function of the small TbTim complexes are specific to T. brucei.","journal":"International Journal of Molecular Sciences","year":2024,"id":479318,"datarank":0.12025805595981306,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"self_citation_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citation_network_contribution":0.016285978875821252,"self_endowment_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citer_contribution":0.016285978875821252,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":1,"citers_with_citation_signal":1,"citers_with_endowment":1,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9512,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":398630,"name":"Fidel Soto Gonzalez","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":398629,"name":"Chauncey Darden","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1318175,"name":"Muhammad Anwar Khan","orcid":"0000-0002-6379-590X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":397355,"name":"Anuj Tripathi","orcid":"0000-0002-3697-0207","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":420493,"name":"Joseph T. Smith","orcid":"0000-0002-1398-1798","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":720867,"name":"Jamaine Davis","orcid":"0000-0002-5078-1306","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":512879,"name":"Smita Misra","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":397353,"name":"Minu Chaudhuri","orcid":"0000-0001-7626-1280","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":398631,"name":"Linda Quiñones","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":56,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:06:50.355747Z","pmid":"38338692","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}