Mitophagy is thought to play an important role in mitochondrial quality control. Mitochondrial division is believed to occur first, and autophagosome formation subsequently occurs to enwrap mitochondria as a process of mitophagy. However, there has not been any temporal analysis of mitochondrial division and autophagosome formation in mitophagy. Therefore, the relationships among these processes remain unclear. We show that the mitochondrial division factor Dnm1 in yeast or Drp1 in mammalian cells is dispensable for mitophagy. Autophagosome formation factors, such as FIP200, ATG14, and WIPIs, were essential for the mitochondrial division for mitophagy. Live-cell imaging showed that isolation membranes formed on the mitochondria. A small portion of the mitochondria then divided from parental mitochondria simultaneously with the extension of isolation membranes and autophagosome formation. These findings suggest the presence of a mitophagy process in which mitochondrial division for mitophagy is accomplished together with autophagosome formation.

Mitochondrial fission facilitates cytochrome c release from the intracristae space into the cytoplasm during intrinsic apoptosis, although how the mitochondrial fission factor Drp1 and its mitochondrial receptors Mff, MiD49, and MiD51 are involved in this reaction remains elusive. Here, we analyzed the functional division of these receptors with their knockout (KO) cell lines. In marked contrast to Mff-KO cells, MiD49/MiD51-KO and Drp1-KO cells completely resisted cristae remodeling and cytochrome c release during apoptosis. This phenotype in MiD49/51-KO cells, but not Drp1-KO cells, was completely abolished by treatments disrupting cristae structure such as OPA1 depletion. Unexpectedly, OPA1 oligomers generally thought to resist cytochrome c release by stabilizing the cristae structure were similarly disassembled in Drp1-KO and MiD49/51-KO cells, indicating that disassembly of OPA1 oligomers is not directly linked to cristae remodeling for cytochrome c release. Together, these results indicate that Drp1-dependent mitochondrial fission through MiD49/MiD51 regulates cristae remodeling during intrinsic apoptosis.

The cytoplasmic dynamin-related guanosine triphosphatase Drp1 is recruited to mitochondria and mediates mitochondrial fission. Although the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) protein Fis1 is thought to be a Drp1 receptor, this has not been confirmed. To analyze the mechanism of Drp1 recruitment, we manipulated the expression of mitochondrial fission and fusion proteins and demonstrated that (a) mitochondrial fission factor (Mff) knockdown released the Drp1 foci from the MOM accompanied by network extension, whereas Mff overexpression stimulated mitochondrial recruitment of Drp1 accompanied by mitochondrial fission; (b) Mff-dependent mitochondrial fission proceeded independent of Fis1; (c) a Mff mutant with the plasma membrane–targeted CAAX motif directed Drp1 to the target membrane; (d) Mff and Drp1 physically interacted in vitro and in vivo; (e) exogenous stimuli–induced mitochondrial fission and apoptosis were compromised by knockdown of Drp1 and Mff but not Fis1; and (f) conditional knockout of Fis1 in colon carcinoma cells revealed that it is dispensable for mitochondrial fission. Thus, Mff functions as an essential factor in mitochondrial recruitment of Drp1.

The central channel Tom40 of the preprotein translocase of outer membrane (TOM) complex is thought to be responsible for the import of virtually all preproteins synthesized outside the mitochondria. In this study, we analyze the topogenesis of the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor (PBR), which integrates into the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) through five hydrophobic transmembrane segments (TMSs) and functions in cholesterol import into the inner membrane. Analyses of in vitro and in vivo import into TOM component–depleted mitochondria reveal that PBR import (1) depends on the import receptor Tom70 but requires neither the Tom20 and Tom22 import receptors nor the import channel Tom40, (2) shares the post-Tom70 pathway with the C-tail–anchored proteins, and (3) requires factors of the mitochondrial intermembrane space. Furthermore, membrane integration of mitofusins and mitochondrial ubiquitin ligase, the MOM proteins with two and four TMSs, respectively, proceeds through the same initial pathway. These findings reveal a previously unidentified pathway of the membrane integration of MOM proteins with multiple TMSs.

Tom20 is a major receptor of the mitochondrial preprotein translocation system and is bound to the outer membrane through the NH 2 -terminal transmembrane domain (TMD) in an Nin-Ccyt orientation. We analyzed the mitochondria-targeting signal of rat Tom20 (rTom20) in COS-7 cells, using green fluorescent protein (GFP) as the reporter by systematically introducing deletions or mutations into the TMD or the flanking regions. Moderate TMD hydrophobicity and a net positive charge within five residues of the COOH-terminal flanking region were both critical for mitochondria targeting. Constructs without net positive charges within the flanking region, as well as those with high TMD hydrophobicity, were targeted to the ER-Golgi compartments. Intracellular localization of rTom20-GFP fusions, determined by fluorescence microscopy, was further verified by cell fractionation. The signal recognition particle (SRP)–induced translation arrest and photo–cross-linking demonstrated that SRP recognized the TMD of rTom20-GFP, but with reduced affinity, while the positive charge at the COOH-terminal flanking segment inhibited the translation arrest. The mitochondria-targeting signal identified in vivo also functioned in the in vitro system. We conclude that NH 2 -terminal TMD with a moderate hydrophobicity and a net positive charge in the COOH-terminal flanking region function as the mitochondria-targeting signal of the outer membrane proteins, evading SRP-dependent ER targeting.

Synaptotagmin II is a type I signal-anchor protein, in which the NH 2 -terminal domain of 60 residues (N-domain) is located within the lumenal space of the membrane and the following hydrophobic region (H-region) shows transmembrane topology. We explored the early steps of cotranslational integration of this molecule on the endoplasmic reticulum membrane and demonstrated the following: (a) The translocation of the N-domain occurs immediately after the H-region and the successive positively charged residues emerge from the ribosome. (b) Positively charged residues that follow the H-region are essential for maintaining the correct topology. (c) It is possible to dissect the lengths of the nascent polypeptide chains which are required for ER targeting of the ribosome and for translocation of the N-domain, thereby demonstrating that different nascent polypeptide chain lengths are required for membrane targeting and N-domain translocation. (d) The H-region is sufficiently long for membrane integration. (e) Proline residues preceding H-region are critical for N-domain translocation, but not for ER targeting. The proline can be replaced with amino acid with low helical propensity.