Mitochondria are complex organelles that perform many key activities in the cell. They contain multiple copies of their own genome, which encodes 13 proteins in humans and the transfer RNAs and ribosomal RNAs needed to translate them.1 Thus, almost all of the hundreds of proteins needed for their function must be encoded in the nucleus and imported across the mitochondrial membranes. Within the mitochondria they undergo proteolytic processing and targeting to multiple compartments and enzyme complexes.
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Vyas et al. (2008) studied this question.
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