Premium
Which polyubiquitin polymer(s) is responsible for mitophagy in yeast cells?
Author(s) -
Hoskins Tyler Dayton,
Cooper Eric
Publication year - 2017
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.31.1_supplement.916.6
Subject(s) - mitophagy , parkin , yeast , ubiquitin , mitochondrion , saccharomyces cerevisiae , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , vacuole , gene , autophagy , genetics , medicine , disease , apoptosis , pathology , parkinson's disease , cytoplasm
Families have been identified in which individuals develop Parkinson's disease at very early ages (~ 21–40 years old). Genetic studies determined that these patients possess defective versions of a gene named Parkin, which encodes an enzyme that targets damaged mitochondria for degradation via a process termed mitophagy. Specifically, Parkin assembles a polymer, or chain, of a protein called ubiquitin on specific proteins lining the surface of mitochondria, which then “flags” it to be engulfed into a vacuole and digested. Ubiquitin can be assembled into seven different types of polymers, and we are using yeast, a simple and commonly used laboratory organism, to determine which one(s) are necessary for mitophagy induction. To do so, we are adapting an established yeast mitophagy assay (), which requires us to introduce a fluorescent version of the mitochondrial gene OM45 into yeast strains incapable of assembling each different type of ubiquitin polymer. We are monitoring mitophagy in the yeast cells using a common analytical technique called Western Blotting, and anticipate that if we can determine the ubiquitin polymer responsible for mitophagy in yeast, we can extrapolate our results to mitophagy induction in human cells.