Mitochondrial Methionyl tRNA Formyltransferase (MTFMT)

Mammalian mitochondria, however, have a single Met-tRNA gene (MTTM) which must be processed to produce both formylated and nonformylated forms. Presumably MTFMT balances the ratios of both species of Met-tRNA to match the needs of protein synthesis. Takeuchi et al. (1998) partially purified a mitochondrial methionyl-tRNA transformylase (MTFmt) from bovine liver, determined the amino-terminal peptide sequence, and obtained a cDNA from a bovine heart library based on a partial human cDNA sequence identified in a database search. The predicted 357-amino acid bovine and 304-amino acid human proteins are about 30% identical to MTFs in prokaryotes.The International Radiation Hybrid Mapping Consortium mapped the MTFMT gene to chromosome 15 .