Ago1 is required for the regulation of mitochondrial translation under heat stress in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

Mitochondrial protein synthesis is a critical component of OXPHOS complexes, vital for both mammals and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. In our study, we investigated the effect of heat stress on mitochondria, analyzed the mitochondrial proteome and found that during heat stress, the translation of all mtDNA-encoded transcripts was impaired, leading to a reduction in the steady-state levels of mtDNA-encoded proteins, suggesting that heat stress plays a general role in mitochondrial protein synthesis. We also found that heat stress affects the association of mitochondrial translation initiation factors to mitoribosomal small subunits. Interestingly, ago1 deletion compensates for the heat-induced disruption of the interaction between mitochondrial translation initiation factor and mitoribosomes, leading to partial recovery of both translation and steady-state levels of mtDNA-encoded proteins in S. pombe. Under heat stress, Ago1 accumulates in the mitochondrial matrix. C-terminal truncation ablates this localization and abolishes rescue of translational suppression, confirming mitochondrial targeting is essential for regulatory function. Furthermore, our data demonstrate that Ago1's small RNA-loading-related N-terminal domain is required for heat-induced translational suppression and that Ago1 physically engages with mitochondrial RNAs, collectively indicating potential RNA interference (RNAi) activity within mitochondria. These findings provide insight into the regulation of mitochondrial protein synthesis in heat stress.