Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Fukuoka, Japan.
Autophagy. 2009 Nov;5(8):1186-9. doi: 10.4161/auto.5.8.9854. Epub 2009 Nov 20.
Macroautophagy (hereafter autophagy) is a ubiquitous degradative process in eukaryotic cells. Mitochondria autophagy (mitophagy) is a type of specific autophagy that degrades mitochondria selectively. Mitophagy is thought to play an important role for maintaining the quality of these organelles by eliminating damaged mitochondria, and it is involved in cellular differentiation, whereas dysfunctional mitophagy is related with neurodegenerative diseases; however, the mechanism of mitophagy is poorly understood. To facilitate the analysis of mitophagy, we recently established a simple method to monitor mitophagy in yeast, the Om45-GFP processing assay. Om45-GFP is a mitochondrial outer membrane protein. Following the uptake of mitochondria into the vacuole, Om45-GFP is degraded, releasing the intact form of GFP, which is detected by immunoblotting. Therefore, the amount of free GFP reflects the level of mitophagy.
自噬（以下简称自噬）是真核细胞中普遍存在的降解过程。线粒体自噬（mitophagy）是一种选择性降解线粒体的特异性自噬。线粒体自噬被认为通过消除受损的线粒体在维持这些细胞器的质量方面发挥着重要作用，并且它参与细胞分化，而功能失调的线粒体自噬与神经退行性疾病有关；然而，线粒体自噬的机制还不清楚。为了促进对线粒体自噬的分析，我们最近建立了一种简单的方法来监测酵母中的线粒体自噬，即 Om45-GFP 加工测定法。Om45-GFP 是一种线粒体外膜蛋白。线粒体被摄入液泡后，Om45-GFP 被降解，释放完整形式的 GFP，通过免疫印迹检测到。因此，游离 GFP 的量反映了线粒体自噬的水平。
