Mitochondrial Fusion and Fission in Mammals
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ANRV288-CB22-04 ARI 28 September 2006 21:42 Mitochondrial Fusion and Fission in Mammals David C. Chan Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California; email: [email protected] Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 2006. 22:79–99 Key Words First published online as a Review in mitochondrial dynamics, organelle morphology, membrane fusion, Advance on May 11, 2006 membrane trafficking The Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology is online at Abstract http://cellbio.annualreviews.org Eukaryotic cells maintain the overall shape of their mitochondria by This article’s doi: balancing the opposing processes of mitochondrial fusion and fission. by CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY on 12/15/06. For personal use only. 10.1146/annurev.cellbio.22.010305.104638 Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 2006.22:79-99. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org Unbalanced fission leads to mitochondrial fragmentation, and un- Copyright c 2006 by Annual Reviews. balanced fusion leads to mitochondrial elongation. Moreover, these All rights reserved processes control not only the shape but also the function of mito- 1081-0706/06/1110-0079$20.00 chondria. Mitochondrial dynamics allows mitochondria to interact with each other; without such dynamics, the mitochondrial popula- tion consists of autonomous organelles that have impaired function. Key components of the mitochondrial fusion and fission machinery have been identified, allowing initial dissection of their mechanisms of action. These components play important roles in mitochondrial function and development as well as programmed cell death. Dis- ruption of the fusion machinery leads to neurodegenerative disease. 79 ANRV288-CB22-04 ARI 28 September 2006 21:42 in mammals, although work in other systems Contents is discussed when relevant. INTRODUCTION................. 80 THE FUSION MACHINERY ...... 80 THE FUSION MACHINERY Mitofusins: Mfn1 and Mfn2 ....... 81 In mammalian cells, mitochondria take on a OPA1............................ 81 wide variety of shapes, ranging from long, THE FISSION MACHINERY ...... 83 interconnected tubules to individual, small Dynamin-Related Protein 1 ....... 83 spheres (Bereiter-Hahn & Voth 1994). In cul- Fis1. ............................. 83 tured fibroblasts, the mitochondrial popula- OTHER PLAYERS ................. 83 tion consists mostly of short and long tubules, MOLECULAR MECHANISM ..... 85 which constantly migrate along their long Fusion Mechanism ............... 85 axes along microtubule tracks (Chen & Chan Fission Mechanism ............... 87 2004). These migrations are saltatory, consist- BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE . 88 ing of movements back and forth along the Cell Biology of Fusion and Fission 88 tracks. In some cell types, the actin cytoskele- Mitochondrial Dynamics in ton is also used for transport (Hollenbeck & Development and Apoptosis . 89 Saxton 2005). While migrating along these Mitochondrial Dynamics in tracks, a pair of mitochondria can encounter Disease ....................... 91 each other end to end and fuse. Even though PERSPECTIVES ................... 92 an organized cytoskeleton is important as a scaffold for organizing the distribution and movement of mitochondria, it is not necessary for maintaining the tubular shape or fusion of mitochondria (Mattenberger et al. 2003). INTRODUCTION In molecular genetic studies, an initial In the past several years, there have been molecular inroad into a biological pathway tremendous advances in our understanding can greatly accelerate the identification of of the molecular basis of mitochondrial dy- additional genes. In the case of mitochon- namics. It is now well established that mi- drial dynamics, it was the identification of the tochondria are highly dynamic organelles Drosophila mitofusin gene, Fzo, in sperm mi- whose morphology, distribution, and activ- tochondrial fusion (Hales & Fuller 1997) that ity can be regulated by fusion and fission. drove rapid advances in our knowledge of the Several components of the core fusion and molecular basis of mitochondrial fusion and fission machinery have been identified, and fission. The yeast mitofusin homolog, Fzo1, experimental systems have been developed was found to function similarly in mitochon- by CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY on 12/15/06. For personal use only. Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 2006.22:79-99. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org to understand their molecular mechanism of drial fusion (Hermann et al. 1998, Rapaport action. et al. 1998), and genetic screens for extra- In addition to this molecular understand- genic suppressors of fusion mutants led to ing, genetic studies have revealed the impor- the identification of key molecules involved tance of these processes in normal cell func- in mitochondrial fission (Fekkes et al. 2000, tion, mammalian development, and human Mozdy et al. 2000, Tieu & Nunnari 2000). disease. Mitochondrial fusion is necessary for Details of yeast mitochondrial dynamics can normal respiratory function in cells, and per- be found in other excellent reviews (Meeusen turbations in fusion lead to developmental de- & Nunnari 2005, Okamoto & Shaw 2005, fects in mice and neurodegenerative disease in Shaw & Nunnari 2002). Much of the fusion humans. This review emphasizes advances in and fission machinery is conserved in mam- our understanding of mitochondrial dynamics mals (Chen & Chan 2004). 80 Chan ANRV288-CB22-04 ARI 28 September 2006 21:42 Mitofusins: Mfn1 and Mfn2 Mitofusins are conserved, large GTPases lo- calized to the mitochondrial outer membrane (Chen et al. 2003, Rojo et al. 2002, Santel & Fuller 2001). In mammals, there are two closely related mitofusin homologs, Mfn1 and Mfn2. Their essential role in mitochondrial fusion has been established through the gen- Figure 1 eration of mice with targeted mutations (Chen The mammalian mitochondrial fusion machinery. Schematic of Mfn1, et al. 2003). Cells lacking Mfn1 or Mfn2 have Mfn2, and OPA1. All three proteins contain GTPase domains and greatly reduced levels of mitochondrial fusion hydrophobic heptad repeat (HR) regions. The transmembrane (TM) (Chen et al. 2005, Chen et al. 2003). Because segments of the mitofusins are unusually long and contain charged residues of ongoing mitochondrial fission, the mito- that are thought to allow a U-turn in the mitochondrial outer membrane, chondrial population in mutant cells is highly so that almost the entire protein faces the cytosol (see Figure 2). fragmented. In the absence of both Mfn1 and The membrane topology of mitofusins Mfn2, there is absolutely no mitochondrial fu- makes them good candidates for molecules in- sion, resulting in complete loss of mitochon- volved in outer membrane fusion (Figure 1 drial tubules and poor mitochondrial function and 2). Both the N- and C-terminal regions (Chen et al. 2005). of these proteins protrude from the mitochon- Mfn1 and Mfn2 appear to play similar roles drial outer membrane into the cytosol (Rojo in mitochondrial fusion. Both molecules are et al. 2002). This topology implies a U-shaped necessary for normal levels of mitochondrial transmembrane domain, and consistent with fusion, but in cultured fibroblasts Mfn1 plays this, the transmembrane domain is unusu- a more active role (Chen et al. 2005). Fibrob- ally long and interrupted by several charged lasts lacking Mfn1 have more severely frag- residues. The N-terminal domain of mito- mented mitochondria and show less residual fusins contains a GTPase domain followed mitochondrial fusion than do those lacking by a hydrophobic heptad repeat region, HR1. Mfn2. Mfn1 and Mfn2 can functionally re- The C-terminal region contains a second hy- place each other. Cells lacking Mfn1 can drophobic heptad repeat region, HR2. As dis- be rescued by overexpression of Mfn2; con- cussed below, the HR1 and HR2 regions likely versely, cells lacking Mfn2 can be rescued by play important roles in the fusion reaction. overexpression of Mfn1. Moreover, Mfn-null cells can be fully rescued by overexpression of either mitofusin. These results clearly in- OPA1 dicate that the mitofusin homologs have very Mammalian OPA1 was initially identified as by CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY on 12/15/06. For personal use only. similar biochemical activities. It is likely that Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 2006.22:79-99. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org the gene mutated in autosomal dominant op- the cell-type-specific dependence for either tic atrophy (DOA), a common cause of in- Hydrophobic Mfn1 or Mfn2, such as the requirement for herited visual loss (Alexander et al. 2000, heptad repeat Mfn2 in the placenta (Chen et al. 2003), is a (HR): protein motif Delettre et al. 2000). OPA1 and the yeast ho- consequence of their relative expression levels consisting of a molog Mgm1 are dynamin family GTPases in different tissues. In spite of the functional seven-residue repeat, that are located within the mitochondrial in- designated ,in similarities of Mfn1 and Mfn2, some differ- abcdefg termembrane space and are associated with which the a and d ences in these molecules have been detected. the inner membrane (Griparic et al. 2004, residues are OPA1 function shows a dependence on Mfn1 primarily Herlan et al. 2003, Olichon et al. 2002, Satoh but not on Mfn2 (Cipolat et al. 2004), and hydrophobic et al. 2003, Wong et al. 2000) (Figures 1 and Mfn1 shows more activity in a mitochondrial DOA: dominant 2). The OPA1 gene produces multiple pro- tethering assay (Ishihara et al. 2004). optic atrophy tein isoforms, owing to extensive alternative www.annualreviews.org