The membranes of cells are highly complex and heterogeneous structures that fulfill multiple vital tasks. They form thin barriers that seal out the environment, thus defining the cell’s boundaries. They mediate the selective exchange of information and substances between the inside and outside of cells, thus making cellular life and survival possible and allowing fast adaptation to changing conditions. Not least importantly, they harbor key components of many essential processes such as the photosynthesis and respiration. Membranes are composed of a largely apolar lipid matrix densely punctuated with a large number of different proteins. These so-called membrane proteins usually span the lipid matrix and protrude out into the space on either side of the membrane.

Over millions of years of evolution, cells have developed an incredible machinery to facilitate the insertion of membrane proteins into the membrane. Our understanding of these machines and the insertion processes they mediate has reached a point where we have a very good picture of membrane protein biogenesis in various types of cells. However, more data still needs to be collected to completely comprehend the complex molecular mechanisms and the physical chemistry that underlies the different insertion processes.

The work presented in this thesis contributes to that understanding. More precisely, we have studied how weakly hydrophobic transmembrane elements of membrane proteins, which cannot spontaneously enter the largely apolar membrane matrices, are efficiently incorporated. Indeed, such elements are quite common in membrane proteins and our work has lead to the formulation of a novel mechanism for how they can be integrated into biological membranes.

We have also added to the understanding of the physical chemistry that underlies the membrane insertion process by systematically introducing non-proteinogenic amino acids into a membrane-spanning segment of a membrane protein and studying its membrane insertion capability.

Translocons are dynamic protein complexes with the ability to respond to specific signals and to transport polypeptides between two distinct environments. The Sec-type translocons are examples of such machineries that can interconvert between a pore forming conformation that translocates proteins across the membrane, and a channel-like conformation that integrates proteins into the membrane by lateral opening.

This thesis aims to identify the signals encoded in the amino acid sequence of the translocating polypeptides that trigger the translocon to release defined segments into the membrane. The selected systems are the SecYEG translocon and the TIM23 complex responsible for inserting proteins into the bacterial and the mitochondrial inner membrane, respectively.

These two translocons have been challenged in vivo with designed polypeptide segments and their insertion efficiency into the membrane was measured. This allowed identification of the sequence requirements that govern SecYEG- and TIM23-mediated membrane integration. For these two systems, “biological” hydrophobicity scales have been determined, giving the contributions of each of the 20 amino acids to the overall free energy of insertion of a transmembrane segment into the membrane.

A closer analysis of the mitochondrial system has made it possible to additionally investigate the process of membrane dislocation mediated by the m-AAA protease. The threshold hydrophobicity required for a transmembrane segment to remain in the mitochondrial inner membrane after TIM23-mediated integration depends on whether the segment will be further acted upon by the m-AAA protease.

Finally, an experimental approach is presented to distinguish between different protein sorting pathways at the level of the TIM23 complex, i.e., conservative sorting vs. stop-transfer pathways. The results suggest a connection between the metabolic state of the cell and the import of proteins into the mitochondria.