A research team at the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta said they have found a new way by which metabolism is associated with the regulation of DNA - the basis of our genetic code.
The research found that an enzyme, previously thought to live only in mitochondria, can actually find its way into the nucleus and do what it is designed to do in the mitochondria.
"Although this jumping of an enzyme from one organelle into another in the cell is not unheard off, our results were quite surprising", said lead researcher and postdoctoral fellow Gopinath Sutendra, in the press release. "We wanted to measure acetyl-CoA levels and PDC in the mitochondria because that's where we thought they were. But accidentally we had the nuclei isolated at the same time and we saw PDC in the nucleus. So we asked, 'what is PDC doing there?' And that started it all."
The study authors said that despite the recognized importance of histone acetylation in cell biology and medicine, and the efforts by various scientists to develop drugs that regulate histone acetylation, the source of acetyl-CoA in the nucleus had remained unknown. "Sometimes the answers to important biological questions are just next to you, waiting to be discovered," he added.
Researchers said that their analysis could have major implications for the understanding of common diseases such as cancer.
The findings also showed that the translocation of PDC into the nucleus made cancer cells grow faster. This would prove helpful in chalking out further treatment against cancer. "We are very excited about this new pathway linking energy production (the process known as metabolism) with gene regulation," the researchers said.
The work has been published in the journal 'Cell.'
