Oxoglutarate Carrier Protein, Mitochondrial (OGC)

The inner membranes of mitochondria contain a number of proteins to transport various metabolites across the mitochondrial membrane. The oxoglutarate/malate carrier transports 2-oxoglutarate across the inner membranes of mitochondria in an electroneutral exchange for malate or other dicarboxylic acids. Iacobazzi et al. (1992) determined the sequences of the human and bovine mitochondrial 2-oxoglutarate carrier genes from overlapping genomic clones generated by PCR. The coding and protein sequences of the human and bovine genes are 93% and 96.6% identical, respectively. The human gene has 8 exons and 7 introns and spans 2.5 kb. Its protein product has 314 amino acids and does not appear to have a processed presequence to target it into mitochondria.