Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Fly study related to Parkinson's disease places Clu in context of PINK1, Parkin and mitochondrial quality control

Sen A, Kalvakuri S, Bodmer R, Cox RT. Clueless, a protein required for mitochondrial function, interacts with the PINK1-Parkin complex in Drosophila. Dis Model Mech. 2015 Jun 1;8(6):577-589. PMID: 26035866.

From the abstract: "Loss of mitochondrial function often leads to neurodegeneration and is thought to be one of the underlying causes ... we show that clu also genetically interacts with PINK1, and our epistasis analysis places clu downstream of PINK1 and upstream of park. ... Clu forms a complex with PINK1 and Park ... Lack of Clu causes PINK1 and Park to interact with each other, and clu mutants have decreased mitochondrial protein levels ... these results suggest that Clu directly modulates mitochondrial function, and that Clu's function contributes to the PINK1-Park pathway of mitochondrial quality control."

Note:  clu has been conserved--the orthologous human protein appears to be CLUH.

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