1 Loss of Frataxin induces iron toxicity, sphingolipid synthesis, and 2 Pdk1/Mef2 activation, leading to neurodegeneration 3 4 Kuchuan Chen1, Guang Lin2, Nele A. Haelterman1, Tammy Szu-Yu Ho3, Tongchao Li1, Zhihong 5 Li2, Lita Duraine4, Brett H. Graham1, 2, Manish Jaiswal2, 4, Shinya Yamamoto1, 2, 5, Matthew N. 6 Rasband1, 3, and Hugo J. Bellen1, 2, 3, 4, 5, * 7 1Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA 8 2Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA 9 3Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA 10 4Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA 11 5Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, 12 USA 13 14 Keywords: Friedreich ataxia; Frataxin; iron; mitochondria; sphingolipid; Pdk1; Mef2; lipid 15 droplets; photoreceptors; Drosophila 16 17 *Corresponding author:
[email protected] 18 19 20 21 1 22 Abstract 23 Mutations in Frataxin (FXN) cause Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA), a recessive 24 neurodegenerative disorder. Previous studies have proposed that loss of FXN causes 25 mitochondrial dysfunction, which triggers elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) and leads to 26 the demise of neurons. Here we describe a ROS independent mechanism that contributes to 27 neurodegeneration in fly FXN mutants. We show that loss of frataxin homolog (fh) in Drosophila 28 leads to iron toxicity, which in turn induces sphingolipid synthesis and ectopically activates 3- 29 phosphoinositide dependent protein kinase-1 (Pdk1) and myocyte enhancer factor-2 (Mef2). 30 Dampening iron toxicity, inhibiting sphingolipid synthesis by Myriocin, or reducing Pdk1 or 31 Mef2 levels, all effectively suppress neurodegeneration in fh mutants.