Overview
- The two papers, published Oct. 1–2, 2026 as part of the MitoCarta Tree of Life Consortium, raised Acanthamoeba nuclear genome annotation accuracy from about 52% to 98% and annotated roughly 16,000 genes.
- Researchers produced AcMitoCarta, an experimentally defined mitochondrial proteome of 1,122 proteins built from purified mitochondria, mass spectrometry, protein-correlation profiling, and complexome analysis.
- Proteomic and transcriptomic data show the amoeba rewires mitochondrial bioenergetics by oxygen level and uses a mitochondria-localized, oxygen-sensitive hydrogenase to make hydrogen gas under anoxia.
- About 300–381 mitochondrial proteins lack clear human or yeast counterparts, giving priority candidates for microbe-specific diagnostics or drugs that would be less toxic to human cells.
- Authors say the resource is a starting point for focused functional tests of essential proteins, studies of cyst formation and oxygen adaptation, and longer-term drug discovery rather than an immediate therapy.