The outer mitochondrial membrane protein TMEM11 demarcates spatially restricted BNIP3/BNIP3L-mediated mitophagy

Mehmet Oguz Gok, Olivia M. Connor, Xun Wang, Cameron J. Menezes, Claire B. Llamas, Prashant Mishra, Jonathan R. Friedman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Mitochondria play critical roles in cellular metabolism and to maintain their integrity, they are regulated by several quality control pathways, including mitophagy. During BNIP3/BNIP3L-dependent receptor-mediated mitophagy, mitochondria are selectively targeted for degradation by the direct recruitment of the autophagy protein LC3. BNIP3 and/or BNIP3L are upregulated situationally, for example during hypoxia and developmentally during erythrocyte maturation. However, it is not well understood how they are spatially regulated within the mitochondrial network to locally trigger mitophagy. Here, we find that the poorly characterized mitochondrial protein TMEM11 forms a complex with BNIP3 and BNIP3L and co-enriches at sites of mitophagosome formation. We find that mitophagy is hyper-active in the absence of TMEM11 during both normoxia and hypoxia-mimetic conditions due to an increase in BNIP3/BNIP3L mitophagy sites, supporting a model that TMEM11 spatially restricts mitophagosome formation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere202204021
JournalJournal of Cell Biology
Volume222
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 3 2023

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cell Biology

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