Peter Rehling

• 1993 Diploma in Biochemistry, University of Bochum, Germany

• 1996 PhD, Institute for Physiological Chemistry, Bochum, Germany

• 2000-2004 Ass. professor (habilitation), Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Freiburg, Germany

• since 2007 Head of the Department of Biochemistry II, University of Goettingen

Major Research Interests:

Peter Rehling

We are interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms by which proteins are transported across the mitochondrial membranes and to find out how multi-protein complexes in the inner membrane (TIM complexes; translocation machineries of the inner membrane) mediate this task. In another aspect of our work we addresses the question as to how newly imported proteins assemble into multi-protein complexes in the inner membrane. In case of the respiratory chain complexes the assembly process is especially demanding since central subunits of the complexes are made within mitochondria. Dedicated chaperone-like factors are required to assist and regulate the assembly process. The analysis of the principles of the biogenesis process and the activities of the assembly factors is of central importance for our understanding of the molecular basis of human mitochondrial disorders. In our work we combine biochemical and genetic techniques on the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisae with experiments in human cell lines. Research topics that we currently address are:

• Transport and membrane insertion of mitochondrial proteins

• Assembly of inner mitochondrial membrane complexes and how this process is affected in mitochondrial disorders

• Biogenesis of mitochondrially-encoded proteins

Address:
Department of Biochemistry II
University of Goettingen
Humboldtallee 23
37073 Göttingen
Germany

phone: +49-551-39 5947
fax: +49-551-39 5979
e-mail:

Further Information:
Dept. Research Group

Selected Recent Publications:

Odorizzi G, Rehling P (2009). Membranes and organelles. Curr Opin Cell Biol 21: 481-483

Gebert N, Chacinska A, Wagner K, Guiard B, Koehler CM, Rehling P, Pfanner N, Wiedemann N (2008). Assembly of the three small Tim proteins precedes docking to the mitochondrial carrier translocase. EMBO Rep 9: 548-554

Stuart RA, Rehling P (2008). Mitochondrial biogenesis: is an old dog still teaching us new tricks?. EMBO Rep 9: 33-38

Mick DU, Wagner K, Van der Laan M, Frazier AE, Perschil I, Pawlas M, Meyer HE, Warscheid B, Rehling P (2007). Shy1 couples Cox1 translational regulation to cytochrome c oxidase assembly. EMBO J 26: 4347-4358

Van der Laan M, Meinecke M, Dudek J, Hutu DP, Lind M, Perschil I, Guiard B, Wagner R, Pfanner N, Rehling P (2007). Motor-free mitochondrial presequence translocase drives membrane integration of preproteins. Nat Cell Biol 9: 1152-1159