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Priming for destruction: septins at the crossroads of mitochondrial fission and bacterial autophagy
Author(s) -
Spiliotis Elias T,
Dolat Lee
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
embo reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.584
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1469-3178
pISSN - 1469-221X
DOI - 10.15252/embr.201642606
Subject(s) - mitochondrial fission , septin , autophagy , microbiology and biotechnology , mitochondrion , biology , cytosol , organelle , dnm1l , mfn1 , dynamin , mitochondrial fusion , shigella flexneri , cytokinesis , cell , apoptosis , endocytosis , cell division , genetics , biochemistry , mitochondrial dna , escherichia coli , gene , enzyme
Mitochondria are essential organelles for cell survival, programmed cell death, and autophagy. They undergo cycles of fission and fusion, which are subverted by infectious pathogens and altered in many human diseases. Mitochondrial fission is mediated by the dynamin‐related protein Drp1, but the precise mechanism of its action is not well understood. In the last and current issues of EMBO Reports , two new studies [1][Pagliuso A, 2016][2][Sirianni A, 2016] reveal that the filamentous septin GTP ases interact directly with Drp1, promoting mitochondrial fission. Moreover, mitochondria were found to promote the assembly of septin filaments into cages around cytosolic Shigella flexneri bacteria [2][Sirianni A, 2016], which are targeted for autophagy. Thus, septins emerge as integral components of the machinery of mitochondrial fission and may pose a novel link between mitochondria and autophagy.