Assessment of mitophagy in mt-Keima revealed an essential role of the PINK1-Parkin pathway in mitophagy induction .

Mitophagy has been implicated in mitochondrial quality control and in various human diseases. However, the study of mitophagy remains limited. We previously explored mitophagy using a transgenic mouse expressing the mitochondria-targeted fluorescent protein Keima (mt-Keima). Here, we generated mt-Keima to extend our efforts to study mitophagy . A series of experiments confirmed that mitophagy can be faithfully and quantitatively measured in mt-Keima . We also showed that alterations in mitophagy upon environmental and genetic perturbation can be measured in mt-Keima . Analysis of different tissues revealed a variation in basal mitophagy levels in tissues. In addition, we found a significant increase in mitophagy levels during embryogenesis. Importantly, loss-of-function genetic analysis demonstrated that the phosphatase and tensin homolog-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1)-Parkin pathway is essential for the induction of mitophagy in response to hypoxic exposure and rotenone treatment. These studies showed that the mt-Keima system is a useful tool for understanding the role and molecular mechanism of mitophagy . In addition, we demonstrated the essential role of the PINK1-Parkin pathway in mitophagy induction in response to mitochondrial dysfunction.-Kim, Y. Y., Um, J.-H., Yoon, J.-H., Kim, H., Lee, D.-Y., Lee, Y. J., Jee, H. J., Kim, Y. M., Jang, J. S., Jang, Y.-G., Chung, J., Park, H. T., Finkel, T., Koh, H., Yun, J. Assessment of mitophagy in mt-Keima revealed an essential role of the PINK1-Parkin pathway in mitophagy induction .