Cardiolipin‐dependent Carriers

The phospholipid, cardiolipin, has pleiotropic structural and functional roles that are collectively essential for mitochondrial biology. Yet, the molecular details of how this lipid supports the structure and function of proteins and protein complexes is poorly understood. To address this property of cardiolipin, we use the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier as a model. We have recently determined that cardiolipin is critical for both the tertiary and quaternary assembly of the major yeast Aac isoform, Aac2, as well as its conformation. Notably, these structural roles provided by cardiolipin are separable. Intriguingly, the association of Aac2 with respiratory supercomplexes is sensitive to its transport‐related conformation. Current work is focused on establishing the molecular underpinnings for the separable structural roles provided by cardiolipin to Aac2.