Project description:Mutations in the E3 ubiquitin ligase Parkin cause autosomal recessive Parkinson’s disease. In concert with PINK1, Parkin regulates the clearance of dysfunctional mitochondria via lysosomes. In response, new mitochondria are generated through an interplay of nuclear- and mitochondrial-encoded proteins. Mouse and overexpression models suggests that Parkin also influences these processes, both in the nuclear cascade and at the level of the mitochondrial genome. Additionally, Parkin has been shown to prevent mitochondrial membrane permeation, impeding the escape of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). In line with this, serum from Parkin mutation carriers showed higher levels of circulating cell-free mtDNA (ccf-mtDNA) and inflammatory cytokines – a result of the innate immune response - which can be triggered by cytosolic mtDNA. However, Parkin’s relationship with the mitochondrial genome and the mitogenesis pathway has not been explored in patient-derived neurons. To investigate this aspect of Parkin’s cellular function endogenously, we generated induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived midbrain neurons from Parkin mutation carriers and healthy controls. In Parkin-deficient cells, several factors in the mitochondrial biogenesis pathway were significantly reduced, resulting in impaired mtDNA homeostasis - a phenomenon that was exacerbated in dopaminergic neurons. Moreover, in response to a lack of freely accessible NAD+, the energy sensor Sirtuin 1, which simultaneously controls mtDNA maintenance processes and mitophagy, was downregulated in Parkin-deficient neurons. However, while impaired lysosomal degradation of mitochondria was only detectable in oxidative conditions, biogenesis defects were already apparent in untreated patient neurons. This may suggest that mitophagy disruption occurs in response to acute stress. By contrast, the biogenesis pathway may be continually impaired in Parkin-associated Parkinson’s disease. Next, using a mutagenic stress model in combination with Parkin knockdown, we detected an increase in ccf-mtDNA and the cytosolic DNA sensor cGAS. To explore if ccf-mtDNA can act as damage-associated molecular pattern in the brain, we used postmortem tissue from a Parkin mutation carrier and performed single-cell RNA sequencing. In the midbrain lacking Parkin, we found a higher percentage of microglia along with an upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines in these cells. Together, our findings suggest a role for Parkin in the control of mitochondrial biogenesis and mtDNA maintenance, which protects midbrain neurons from neuroinflammation-induced degeneration. Future research in iPSC-derived neuron-microglia co-culture systems could aim at developing PD treatment approaches that target the neuronal release or microglial uptake of ccf-mtDNA.

Project description:Exercise is a fundamental component of human health that is associated with greater life expectancy and reduced risk of chronic diseases. While the beneficial effects of endurance exercise on human health are well established, the molecular mechanisms responsible for these observations remain unclear. Endurance exercise reduces the accumulation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations, alleviates multisystem pathology, and increases the lifespan of the mtDNA mutator mouse model of aging, in which the proof-reading capacity of mitochondrial polymerase gamma (POLG1) is deficient. Clearly, exercise recruited a POLG1-independent mtDNA repair pathway to induce these adaptations, a novel finding as POLG1 is canonically considered to be the sole mtDNA repair enzyme. Here we investigate the identity of this pathway, and show that endurance exercise prevents mitochondrial oxidative damage, attenuates telomere erosion, and mitigates cellular senescence and apoptosis in mtDNA mutator mice. Unexpectedly, we observe translocation of tumour suppressor protein p53 to mitochondria in response to endurance exercise that facilitates mtDNA mutation repair. Indeed, endurance exercise failed to prevent mtDNA mutations, induce mitochondrial biogenesis, preserve mitochondrial morphology, reverse sarcopenia, and mitigate premature mortality in mtDNA mutator mice with muscle-specific deletion of p53. Our data establish an exciting new role for p53 in exercise-mediated maintenance of the mtDNA genome, and presents mitochondrially-targeted p53 as a novel therapeutic modality for aging-associated diseases of mitochondrial etiology. Microarray analysis of gene expression from skeletal muscle (quadriceps femoris) from Mus musculus. N=23 samples per treatment were analysed for whole transcriptiome gene expression profile using NimbleGen Arrays. The treatment groups included wild-type C57Bl/6J mice as the control group, then two treatment groups which both contained homozygous knock-in mtDNA mutator mice (PolG; PolgAD257A/D257A). Once group of these heterozygous knock out mice received regular endurance exercise sessions while the other group remained sedentraty for 6 months. The control group specimens were wild-type litter mates to the transgenic knockout mice.

Project description:Thousands of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been identified in the human genome, but specific biological functions and biochemical mechanisms have been discovered for only about a dozen lncRNAs. One specific lncRNA, Non-coding RNA Activated by DNA Damage (NORAD), has recently been shown by genetic deletion to be required for maintaining genomic stability, but its molecular mechanism is unknown. Here, we combine RNA antisense purification (RAP) and quantitative mass spectrometry to identify proteins that directly interact with NORAD in living cells. We show that NORAD interacts with proteins involved in DNA replication and repair in steady-state cells and localizes to the nucleus upon stimulation with replication stress or DNA damage. In particular, NORAD interacts with RBMX (an emerging component of the DNA-damage response) and encodes the strongest RBMX-binding site in the transcriptome. We demonstrate that NORAD controls the ability of RBMX to assemble a ribonucleoprotein complex, which we term NORAD-Activated Ribonucleoprotein Complex 1 (NARC1), containing known suppressors of genomic instability: topoisomerase I (TOP1), ALYREF and the PRPF19/CDC5L complex. Cells depleted of NORAD or RBMX display an increased frequency of chromosome segregation errors, reduced replication-fork velocity and altered cell cycle progression phenotypes that are mechanistically linked to TOP1 and PRPF19/CDC5L function. Expression of NORAD in trans can rescue defects caused by NORAD depletion, but rescue is significantly impaired when the RBMX-binding site in NORAD is deleted. Our results demonstrate that the interaction between NORAD and RBMX is important for NORAD function and that NORAD is required for the assembly of a previously unknown topoisomerase complex (NARC1) that contributes to maintaining genomic stability. Moreover, we uncover a novel function for lncRNAs in modulating the ability of an RNA-binding protein to assemble a higher-order ribonucleoprotein complex.

Dataset Information

Mitochondrial DNA rearrangements in a patient with mutations in Topoisomerase 3 alpha

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure