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Mitophagy as a quality control mechanism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Author(s) -
Abeliovich Hagai,
Zarei Mostafa,
Rigbolt Kristoffer T.G.,
Youle Richard J.,
Dengjel Joern
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.994.3
Subject(s) - mitophagy , autophagy , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , mitochondrial fission , mitochondrion , saccharomyces cerevisiae , mitochondrial fusion , yeast , biochemistry , mitochondrial dna , gene , apoptosis
The clearance of malfunctioning mitochondria is an important housekeeping function in respiring eukaryotic cells, and plays a role in physiological homeostasis as well as in the progression of maternally inherited late‐onset diseases and aging phenomena. Clearance of entire mitochondrial comartments is thought to occur using the endo‐lysosomal system, by a specific form of autophagic degradation called mitophagy. In standard autophagy assays, such as starvation‐induced macroautophagy, no mitophagy is observed in S. cerevisiae even at after very long periods of time. We identified conditions where, in the absence of external insult, massive mitophagy occurs in stationary phase cells. Our data suggest an active role for mitochondrial dynamics in mediating mitophagy, as opposed to a facilitating role in generating small, “eatable” mitochondrial fragments. This is consistent with the potential existence of a distillation process that utilizes mitochondrial fission and fusion to segregate defective mitochondrial components from functional components. To better understand intra‐mitochondrial segregation events during mitophagy, we carried out a SILAC‐ based proteomic screen, searching for proteins which behave differently in mutants relative to WT cells. The results allow us to test and formulate new hypotheses regarding intra‐mitochondrial protein sorting events that occur during mitophagy.