Cited by 440Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and TreatmentsMitochondrial Function and PathologyAutophagy in Disease and Therapy

The Mitochondrial Fusion-Promoting Factor Mitofusin Is a Substrate of the PINK1/Parkin Pathway

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Poole, Angela C., Thomas, Ruth E., Yu, Selina, Vincow, Evelyn S., Pallanck, Leo·2010·PLoS ONE

Abstract

Loss-of-function mutations in the PINK1 or parkin genes result in recessive heritable forms of parkinsonism. Genetic studies of Drosophila orthologs of PINK1 and parkin indicate that PINK1, a mitochondrially targeted serine/threonine kinase, acts upstream of Parkin, a cytosolic ubiquitin-protein ligase, to promote mitochondrial fragmentation, although the molecular mechanisms by which the PINK1/Parkin pathway promotes mitochondrial fragmentation are unknown. We tested the hypothesis that PINK1 and Parkin promote mitochondrial fragmentation by targeting core components of the mitochondrial morphogenesis machinery for ubiquitination. We report that the steady-state abundance of the mitochondrial fusion-promoting factor Mitofusin (dMfn) is inversely correlated with the activity of PINK1 and Parkin in Drosophila. We further report that dMfn is ubiquitinated in a PINK1- and Parkin-dependent fashion and that dMfn co-immunoprecipitates with Parkin. By contrast, perturbations of PINK1 or Parkin did not influence the steady-state abundance of the mitochondrial fission-promoting factor Drp1 or the mitochondrial fusion-promoting factor Opa1, or the subcellular distribution of Drp1. Our findings suggest that dMfn is a direct substrate of the PINK1/Parkin pathway and that the mitochondrial morphological alterations and tissue degeneration phenotypes that derive from mutations in PINK1 and parkin result at least in part from reduced ubiquitin-mediated turnover of dMfn.

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Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pone.0010054

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  • Once activated, Parkin facilitates ubiquitination of numerous outer mitochondrial membrane proteins, including Mfn1, Mfn2, VDAC, Tom20, and Miro.

    “Once activated, Parkin has been reported to facilitate ubiquitination of numerous OMM proteins, including Mfn1 [126,127,128], Mfn2 [129], VDAC [130], Tom20 (translocase of the outer membrane 20) [121], and Miro [131].”

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Authors
Poole, A. C., Thomas, R. E., Yu, S., Vincow, E. S., & Pallanck, L.
Affiliations
University of Washington (US)
Corresponding author
Pallanck, Leo
Venue
PLoS ONE
Published
2010-04-07
Volume
5
Issue
4
Pages
e10054
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2054556550
Cited by
440
References
41
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 38 · 2013: 44 · 2012: 54
FWCI
28.77
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute on Aging (T32AG000057)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM086394)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Mitochondrial Function and Pathology
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Autophagy in Disease and Therapy
Keywords
mitofusins, PINK1, Parkin, PINK1/Parkin pathway, mitochondrial fusion, mitochondrial fragmentation, ubiquitination, parkinsonism, Drp1, OPA1, Drosophila, mitochondrial morphogenesis
MeSH terms
PTEN-Induced Putative Kinase, Membrane Proteins, Mitochondria, Mutation, Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases, Drosophila Proteins, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases, Immunoprecipitation, Ubiquitination, Protein Stability

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