Coordination of Two Genomes by Mitochondrial Translational Plasticity.

The dual genetic origin of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes leads to the synthesis of subunits by mitochondrial and cytosolic ribosomes. Now, Richter-Dennerlein et al. report that membrane-integrated assembly factors associate with ribosome nascent chain complexes in human mitochondria to coordinate translational plasticity with the import of subunits from the cytosol.