Mitofusin 2 maintains haematopoietic stem cells with extensive lymphoid potential.

ABSTRACT: Haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which sustain production of all blood cell lineages, rely on glycolysis for ATP production, yet little attention has been paid to the role of mitochondria. Here we show in mice that the short isoform of a critical regulator of HSCs, Prdm16 (refs 4, 5), induces mitofusin 2 (Mfn2), a protein involved in mitochondrial fusion and in tethering of mitochondria to the endoplasmic reticulum. Overexpression and deletion studies, including single-cell transplantation assays, revealed that Mfn2 is specifically required for the maintenance of HSCs with extensive lymphoid potential, but not, or less so, for the maintenance of myeloid-dominant HSCs. Mfn2 increased buffering of intracellular Ca(2+), an effect mediated through its endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria tether

SUBMITTER: Luchsinger LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5106870 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature