Mitochondrial protein homeostasis (proteostasis) keeps the mitochondrial proteome functional. Thus, proteostasis is essential for mitochondrial activity and overall cellular functions, and a reduction in its function corresponds with diseases and aging in humans. Recent studies in various model organisms highlight components and mechanisms of mitochondrial proteostasis from biogenesis, through assembly, to turnover. Key findings include the identification of new components and mechanistic insights into protein import and mitochondrial translation processes, the interconnectivity of protein biogenesis and quality control, and proteolytic degradation machineries. In this review we discuss these advances that improve our current understanding of the inner workings and significance of the mitochondrial proteostasis network in maintaining functional mitochondria.
Ghifari et al. (Wed,) studied this question.