Cited by 54Autophagy in Disease and TherapyUbiquitin and proteasome pathwaysGenetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms

Autophagy accounts for approximately one-third of mitochondrial protein turnover and is protein selective

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Vincow, Evelyn S., Thomas, Ruth E., Merrihew, Gennifer E., Shulman, Nicholas J., Bammler, Theo K., MacDonald, James W., MacCoss, Michael J., Pallanck, Leo J.·2019·Autophagy

Abstract

The destruction of mitochondria through macroautophagy (autophagy) has been recognised as a major route of mitochondrial protein degradation since its discovery more than 50 years ago, but fundamental questions remain unanswered. First, how much mitochondrial protein turnover occurs through auto-phagy? Mitochondrial proteins are also degraded by nonautophagic mechanisms, and the proportion of mitochondrial protein turnover that occurs through autophagy is still unknown. Second, does auto-phagy degrade mitochondrial proteins uniformly or selectively? Autophagy was originally thought to degrade all mitochondrial proteins at the same rate, but recent work suggests that mitochondrial autophagy may be protein selective. To investigate these questions, we used a proteomics-based approach in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, comparing mitochondrial protein turnover rates in autophagy-deficient Atg7 mutants and controls. We found that ~35% of mitochondrial protein turnover occurred via autophagy. Similar analyses using parkin mutants revealed that parkin-dependent mitophagy accounted for ~25% of mitochondrial protein turnover, suggesting that most mitochondrial autophagy specifically eliminates dysfunctional mitochondria. We also found that our results were incompatible with uniform autophagic turnover of mitochondrial proteins and consistent with protein-selective autophagy. In particular, the autophagic turnover rates of individual mitochondrial proteins varied widely, and only a small amount of the variation could be attributed to tissue differences in mitochondrial composition and autophagy rate. Furthermore, analyses comparing autophagy-deficient and control human fibroblasts revealed diverse autophagy-dependent turnover rates even in homogeneous cells. In summary, our work indicates that autophagy acts selectively on mitochondrial proteins, and that most mitochondrial protein turnover occurs through non-autophagic processes.Abbreviations: Atg5: Autophagy-related 5 (Drosophila); ATG5: autophagy related 5 (human); Atg7: Autophagy-related 7 (Drosophila); ATG7: autophagy related 7 (human); DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid; ER: endoplasmic reticulum; GFP: green fluorescent protein; MS: mass spectrometry; park: parkin (Drosophila); Pink1: PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (Drosophila); PINK1: PTEN-induced kinase 1 (human); PRKN: parkin RBR E3 ubiquitin protein ligase (human); RNA: ribonucleic acid; SD: standard deviation; Ub: ubiquitin/ubiquitinated; WT: wild-type; YME1L: YME1 like ATPase (Drosophila); YME1L1: YME1 like 1 ATPase (human)

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  • Most mitochondrial protein turnover (about 70%) occurs through non-autophagic degradative processes like mitochondrial proteases, the ubiquitin-proteasome system, and mitochondrial-derived vesicles, while mitophagy contributes the remaining one third.

    “A recent proteomic study in Drosophila fibroblasts identified that most of the mitochondrial protein turnover (70% circa) occurs through the combination of non-autophagic degradative processes like mitochondrial proteases, the ubiquitin–proteasome system, and mitochondrial-derived vesicles; while the contribution of mitophagy to protein turnover is of the remaining one third [36].”
  • Approximately 70% of mitochondrial protein turnover occurs through non-autophagic degradation processes such as mitoproteases and UPS, while autophagy accounts for about 30% of mitochondrial protein turnover.

    “A recent proteomics-based study of Drosophila fibroblasts found that approximately 70% of mitochondrial protein turnover occurs through non-autophagic degradation processes such as mitoproteases and UPS; Autophagy accounts for about 30% of mitochondrial protein turnover (54).”

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  1. Tolkovsky AM. Mitophagy. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2009 Sep;1793 (9):1508-1515.

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Authors
Vincow, E. S., Thomas, R. E., Merrihew, G. E., Shulman, N. J., Bammler, T. K., MacDonald, J. W., MacCoss, M. J., & Pallanck, L. J.
Affiliations
University of Washington (US)
Corresponding author
Pallanck, Leo J.
Venue
Autophagy
Published
2019-03-21
Volume
15
Issue
9
Pages
1592-1605
ISSN
  • 1554-8627 (ISSN-L)
  • 1554-8635
OpenAlex
W2921505376
Cited by
54
References
113
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 4
FWCI
6.28
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Autophagy (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Institutes of Health (1R01GM104990, 1RO1GM086394)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Autophagy in Disease and Therapy
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Ubiquitin and proteasome pathways
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
Keywords
mitochondrial protein turnover, selective autophagy, mitophagy, Parkin, PINK1, ATG7, ATG5, mitochondrial degradation, Drosophila melanogaster, human fibroblasts, proteomics, mitochondrial dysfunction, ubiquitination, YME1L, LC3B
MeSH terms
Autophagy-Related Protein 5, Autophagy-Related Protein 7, Animals, Drosophila melanogaster, Fibroblasts, Humans, Mitochondria, Models, Genetic, Organ Specificity, Proteome, Mitochondrial Proteins, Drosophila Proteins, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases, Proteolysis, Mitophagy

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