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Glycosylation with O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) is one of the protein glycosylations affecting various intracellular events. However, the role of O-GlcNAcylation in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) is poorly understood. Mitochondrial adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) synthase is a multiprotein complex that synthesizes ATP from ADP and Pi. Here, we found that ATP synthase subunit α (ATP5A) was O-GlcNAcylated at Thr432 and ATP5A O-GlcNAcylation was decreased in the brains of AD patients and transgenic mouse model, as well as Aβ-treated cells. Indeed, Aβ bound to ATP synthase directly and reduced the O-GlcNAcylation of ATP5A by inhibition of direct interaction between ATP5A and mitochondrial O-GlcNAc transferase, resulting in decreased ATP production and ATPase activity. Furthermore, treatment of O-GlcNAcase inhibitor rescued the Aβ-induced impairment in ATP production and ATPase activity. These results indicate that Aβ-mediated reduction of ATP synthase activity in AD pathology results from direct binding between Aβ and ATP synthase and inhibition of O-GlcNAcylation of Thr432 residue on ATP5A.

Defective mitochondria exert deleterious effects on host cells. To manage this risk, mitochondria display several lines of quality control mechanisms: mitochondria-specific chaperones and proteases protect against misfolded proteins at the molecular level, and fission/fusion and mitophagy segregate and eliminate damage at the organelle level. An increase in unfolded proteins in mitochondria activates a mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPR(mt)) to increase chaperone production, while the mitochondrial kinase PINK1 and the E3 ubiquitin ligase PARK2/Parkin, whose mutations cause familial Parkinson disease, remove depolarized mitochondria through mitophagy. It is unclear, however, if there is a connection between those different levels of quality control (QC). Here, we show that the expression of unfolded proteins in the matrix causes the accumulation of PINK1 on energetically healthy mitochondria, resulting in mitochondrial translocation of PARK2, mitophagy and subsequent reduction of unfolded protein load. Also, PINK1 accumulation is greatly enhanced by the knockdown of the LONP1 protease. We suggest that the accumulation of unfolded proteins in mitochondria is a physiological trigger of mitophagy.

PINK1 activates the HECT-like E3 ubiquitin ligase activity and self-association of Parkin upstream of its translocation to mitochondria and induction of mitophagy., Genetic studies indicate that the mitochondrial kinase PINK1 and the RING-between-RING E3 ubiquitin ligase Parkin function in the same pathway. In concurrence, mechanistic studies show that PINK1 can recruit Parkin from the cytosol to the mitochondria, increase the ubiquitination activity of Parkin, and induce Parkin-mediated mitophagy. Here, we used a cell-free assay to recapitulate PINK1-dependent activation of Parkin ubiquitination of a validated mitochondrial substrate, mitofusin 1. We show that PINK1 activated the formation of a Parkin–ubiquitin thioester intermediate, a hallmark of HECT E3 ligases, both in vitro and in vivo. Parkin HECT-like ubiquitin ligase activity was essential for PINK1-mediated Parkin translocation to mitochondria and mitophagy. Using an inactive Parkin mutant, we found that PINK1 stimulated Parkin self-association and complex formation upstream of mitochondrial translocation. Self-association occurred independent of ubiquitination activity through the RING-between-RING domain, providing mechanistic insight into how PINK1 activates Parkin.

Recent genome-wide association studies indicate that a simple alteration of Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene expression may contribute to the etiology of sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the expression and regulation of LRRK2 protein in the sporadic PD brains remain to be determined. Here, we found that the expression of LRRK2 protein was enhanced in the sporadic PD patients using the frontal cortex tissue from a set of 16 PD patients and 7 control samples. In contrast, no significant difference was detected in the level of LRRK2 mRNA expression between the control and PD cases, suggesting a potential post-transcriptional modification of the LRRK2 protein expression in the sporadic PD brains. Indeed, it was identified that microRNA-205 (miR-205) suppressed the expression of LRRK2 protein through a conserved-binding site at the 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of LRRK2 gene. Interestingly, miR-205 expression was significantly downregulated in the brains of patients with sporadic PD, showing the enhanced LRRK2 protein levels. Also, in vitro studies in the cell lines and primary neuron cultures further established the role of miR-205 in modulating the expression of LRRK2 protein. In addition, introduction of miR-205 prevented the neurite outgrowth defects in the neurons expressing a PD-related LRRK2 R1441G mutant. Together, these findings suggest that downregulation of miR-205 may contribute to the potential pathogenic elevation of LRRK2 protein in the brains of patients with sporadic PD, while overexpression of miR-205 may provide an applicable therapeutic strategy to suppress the abnormal upregulation of LRRK2 protein in PD.

SummaryMutations in the mitochondrial kinase PINK1 and the cytosolic E3 ligase Parkin can cause Parkinson's disease. Damaged mitochondria accumulate PINK1 on the outer membrane where, dependent on kinase activity, it recruits and activates Parkin to induce mitophagy, potentially maintaining organelle fidelity. How PINK1 recruits Parkin is unknown. We show that endogenous PINK1 forms a 700 kDa complex with the translocase of the outer membrane (TOM) selectively on depolarized mitochondria whereas PINK1 ectopically targeted to the outer membrane retains association with TOM on polarized mitochondria. Inducibly targeting PINK1 to peroxisomes or lysosomes, which lack a TOM complex, recruits Parkin and activates ubiquitin ligase activity on the respective organelles. Once there, Parkin induces organelle selective autophagy of peroxisomes but not lysosomes. We propose that the association of PINK1 with the TOM complex allows rapid reimport of PINK1 to rescue repolarized mitochondria from mitophagy, and discount mitochondrial-specific factors for Parkin translocation and activation.

Differential localization to the inner and outer mitochondrial membranes regulates PINK1 stability and function., PINK1 is a mitochondrial kinase mutated in some familial cases of Parkinson’s disease. It has been found to work in the same pathway as the E3 ligase Parkin in the maintenance of flight muscles and dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila melanogaster and to recruit cytosolic Parkin to mitochondria to mediate mitophagy in mammalian cells. Although PINK1 has a predicted mitochondrial import sequence, its cellular and submitochondrial localization remains unclear in part because it is rapidly degraded. In this study, we report that the mitochondrial inner membrane rhomboid protease presenilin-associated rhomboid-like protein (PARL) mediates cleavage of PINK1 dependent on mitochondrial membrane potential. In the absence of PARL, the constitutive degradation of PINK1 is inhibited, stabilizing a 60-kD form inside mitochondria. When mitochondrial membrane potential is dissipated, PINK1 accumulates as a 63-kD full-length form on the outer mitochondrial membrane, where it can recruit Parkin to impaired mitochondria. Thus, differential localization to the inner and outer mitochondrial membranes appears to regulate PINK1 stability and function.

Mutations in PINK1 or Parkin lead to familial parkinsonism. The authors suggest that PINK1 and Parkin form a pathway that senses damaged mitochondria and selectively targets them for degradation., Loss-of-function mutations in PINK1 and Parkin cause parkinsonism in humans and mitochondrial dysfunction in model organisms. Parkin is selectively recruited from the cytosol to damaged mitochondria to trigger their autophagy. How Parkin recognizes damaged mitochondria, however, is unknown. Here, we show that expression of PINK1 on individual mitochondria is regulated by voltage-dependent proteolysis to maintain low levels of PINK1 on healthy, polarized mitochondria, while facilitating the rapid accumulation of PINK1 on mitochondria that sustain damage. PINK1 accumulation on mitochondria is both necessary and sufficient for Parkin recruitment to mitochondria, and disease-causing mutations in PINK1 and Parkin disrupt Parkin recruitment and Parkin-induced mitophagy at distinct steps. These findings provide a biochemical explanation for the genetic epistasis between PINK1 and Parkin in Drosophila melanogaster. In addition, they support a novel model for the negative selection of damaged mitochondria, in which PINK1 signals mitochondrial dysfunction to Parkin, and Parkin promotes their elimination., Author Summary Mutations in the PINK1 or Parkin genes lead to an inherited form of Parkinson disease. Understanding how the products of these genes work may give us insights into what goes wrong in these patients and in Parkinson disease more generally. Previous studies in flies and mice, and in human cells suggest that PINK1 and Parkin are part of a common pathway that protects against damaged mitochondria; these organelles power the cell when healthy but can produce harmful reactive oxygen species when damaged. Exactly how PINK1 and Parkin work together to protect against damaged mitochondria is unclear. The findings we report in this paper suggest a new model in which PINK1 and Parkin together sense mitochondria in distress and selectively target them for degradation. In this pathway, PINK1 acts as a flag that accumulates on dysfunctional mitochondria and then signals to Parkin, which tags these mitochondria for destruction. Since disease-causing mutations in PINK1 or Parkin disrupt this pathway, patients with these mutations may not be able to clean up their damaged mitochondria, leading to the neuronal damage typical of parkinsonism.