Coenzyme Q4 is a functional substitute for coenzyme Q10 and can be targeted to the mitochondria.

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is an important cofactor and antioxidant for numerous cellular processes, and its deficiency has been linked to human disorders including mitochondrial disease, heart failure, Parkinson's disease, and hypertension. Unfortunately, treatment with exogenous CoQ10 is often ineffective, likely due to its extreme hydrophobicity and high molecular weight. Here, we show that less hydrophobic CoQ species with shorter isoprenoid tails can serve as viable substitutes for CoQ10 in human cells. We demonstrate that CoQ4 can perform multiple functions of CoQ10 in CoQ-deficient cells at markedly lower treatment concentrations, motivating further investigation of CoQ4 as a supplement for CoQ10 deficiencies. In addition, we describe the synthesis and evaluation of an initial set of compounds designed to target CoQ4 selectively to mitochondria using triphenylphosphonium. Our results indicate that select versions of these compounds can successfully be delivered to mitochondria in a cell model and be cleaved to produce CoQ4, laying the groundwork for further development.

2-Propylphenol Allosterically Modulates COQ8A to Enhance ATPase Activity.

COQ8A is an atypical kinase-like protein that aids the biosynthesis of coenzyme Q, an essential cellular cofactor and antioxidant. COQ8A's mode of action remains unclear, in part due to the lack of small molecule tools to probe its function. Here, we blend NMR and hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry to help determine how a small CoQ precursor mimetic, 2-propylphenol, modulates COQ8A activity. We identify a likely 2-propylphenol binding site and reveal that this compound modulates a conserved COQ8A domain to increase nucleotide affinity and ATPase activity. Our findings promise to aid further investigations into COQ8A's precise enzymatic function and the design of compounds capable of boosting endogenous CoQ production for therapeutic gain.

Defining mitochondrial protein functions through deep multiomic profiling.

Mitochondria are epicentres of eukaryotic metabolism and bioenergetics. Pioneering efforts in recent decades have established the core protein componentry of these organelles1 and have linked their dysfunction to more than 150 distinct disorders2,3. Still, hundreds of mitochondrial proteins lack clear functions4, and the underlying genetic basis for approximately 40% of mitochondrial disorders remains unresolved5. Here, to establish a more complete functional compendium of human mitochondrial proteins, we profiled more than 200 CRISPR-mediated HAP1 cell knockout lines using mass spectrometry-based multiomics analyses. This effort generated approximately 8.3 million distinct biomolecule measurements, providing a deep survey of the cellular responses to mitochondrial perturbations and laying a foundation for mechanistic investigations into protein function. Guided by these data, we discovered that PIGY upstream open reading frame (PYURF) is an S-adenosylmethionine-dependent methyltransferase chaperone that supports both complex I assembly and coenzyme Q biosynthesis and is disrupted in a previously unresolved multisystemic mitochondrial disorder. We further linked the putative zinc transporter SLC30A9 to mitochondrial ribosomes and OxPhos integrity and established RAB5IF as the second gene harbouring pathogenic variants that cause cerebrofaciothoracic dysplasia. Our data, which can be explored through the interactive online MITOMICS.app resource, suggest biological roles for many other orphan mitochondrial proteins that still lack robust functional characterization and define a rich cell signature of mitochondrial dysfunction that can support the genetic diagnosis of mitochondrial diseases.

Quantitative shotgun proteome analysis by direct infusion.

Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) delivers sensitive peptide analysis for proteomics but requires extensive analysis time, reducing throughput. Here, we demonstrate that gas-phase peptide separation instead of LC enables fast proteome analysis. Using direct infusion-shotgun proteome analysis (DI-SPA) by data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry (DIA-MS), we demonstrate the targeted quantification of over 500 proteins within minutes of MS data collection (~3.5 proteins per second). We show the utility of this technology in performing a complex multifactorial proteomic study of interactions between nutrients, genotype and mitochondrial toxins in a collection of cultured human cells. More than 45,000 quantitative protein measurements from 132 samples were achieved in only ~4.4 h of MS data collection. Enabling fast, unbiased proteome quantification without LC, DI-SPA offers an approach to boost throughput, critical to drug and biomarker discovery studies that require analysis of thousands of proteomes.

Mass spectrometry proteomics reveals a function for mammalian CALCOCO1 in MTOR-regulated selective autophagy.

Macroautophagy/autophagy is suppressed by MTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase) and is an anticancer target under active investigation. Yet, MTOR-regulated autophagy remains incompletely mapped. We used proteomic profiling to identify proteins in the MTOR-autophagy axis. Wild-type (WT) mouse cell lines and cell lines lacking individual autophagy genes (Atg5 or Ulk1/Ulk2) were treated with an MTOR inhibitor to induce autophagy and cultured in media with either glucose or galactose. Mass spectrometry proteome profiling revealed an elevation of known autophagy proteins and candidates for new autophagy components, including CALCOCO1 (calcium binding and coiled-coil domain protein 1). We show that CALCOCO1 physically interacts with MAP1LC3C, a key protein in the machinery of autophagy. Genetic deletion of CALCOCO1 disrupted autophagy of the endoplasmic reticulum (reticulophagy). Together, these results reveal a role for CALCOCO1 in MTOR-regulated selective autophagy. More generally, the resource generated by this work provides a foundation for establishing links between the MTOR-autophagy axis and proteins not previously linked to this pathway. Abbreviations: ATG: autophagy-related; CALCOCO1: calcium binding and coiled-coil domain protein 1; CALCOCO2/NDP52: calcium binding and coiled-coil domain protein 2; CLIR: MAP1LC3C-interacting region; CQ: chloroquine; KO: knockout; LIR: MAP1LC3-interacting region; MAP1LC3/LC3: microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3; MEF: mouse embryonic fibroblast; MLN: MLN0128 ATP-competitive MTOR kinase inhibitor; MTOR: mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase; reticulophagy: selective autophagy of the endoplasmic reticulum; TAX1BP1/CALCOCO3: TAX1 binding protein 1; ULK: unc 51-like autophagy activating kinase; WT: wild-type.

Coenzyme Q biosynthetic proteins assemble in a substrate-dependent manner into domains at ER-mitochondria contacts.

Coenzyme Q (CoQ) lipids are ancient electron carriers that, in eukaryotes, function in the mitochondrial respiratory chain. In mitochondria, CoQ lipids are built by an inner membrane-associated, multicomponent, biosynthetic pathway via successive steps of isoprenyl tail polymerization, 4-hydroxybenzoate head-to-tail attachment, and head modification, resulting in the production of CoQ. In yeast, we discovered that head-modifying CoQ pathway components selectively colocalize to multiple resolvable domains in vivo, representing supramolecular assemblies. In cells engineered with conditional ON or OFF CoQ pathways, domains were strictly correlated with CoQ production and substrate flux, respectively, indicating that CoQ lipid intermediates are required for domain formation. Mitochondrial CoQ domains were also observed in human cells, underscoring their conserved functional importance. CoQ domains within cells were highly enriched adjacent to ER-mitochondria contact sites. Together, our data suggest that CoQ domains function to facilitate substrate accessibility for processive and efficient CoQ production and distribution in cells.

Two-stage metabolic remodelling in macrophages in response to lipopolysaccharide and interferon-γ stimulation.

In response to signals associated with infection or tissue damage, macrophages undergo a series of dynamic phenotypic changes. Here we show that during the response to LPS and interferon-γ stimulation, metabolic reprogramming in macrophages is also highly dynamic. Specifically, the TCA cycle undergoes a two-stage remodeling: the early stage is characterized by a transient accumulation of intermediates including succinate and itaconate, while the late stage is marked by the subsidence of these metabolites. The metabolic transition into the late stage is largely driven by the inhibition of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) and oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complex (OGDC), which is controlled by the dynamic changes in lipoylation state of both PDHC and OGDC E2 subunits and phosphorylation of PDHC E1 subunit. This dynamic metabolic reprogramming results in a transient metabolic state that strongly favors HIF-1α stabilization during the early stage, which subsides by the late stage; consistently, HIF-1α levels follow this trend. This study elucidates a dynamic and mechanistic picture of metabolic reprogramming in LPS and interferon-γ stimulated macrophages, and provides insights into how changing metabolism can regulate the functional transitions in macrophages over a course of immune response.

DNA Polymerase θ Increases Mutational Rates in Mitochondrial DNA.

Replication and maintenance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is essential for cellular function, yet few DNA polymerases are known to function in mitochondria. Here, we conclusively demonstrate that DNA polymerase θ (Polθ) localizes to mitochondria and explore whether this protein is overexpressed in patient-derived cells and tumors. Polθ appears to play an important role in facilitating mtDNA replication under conditions of oxidative stress, and this error-prone polymerase was found to introduce mutations into mtDNA. In patient-derived cells bearing a pathogenic mtDNA mutation, Polθ expression levels were increased, indicating that the oxidative conditions in these cells promote higher expression levels for Polθ. Heightened Polθ expression levels were also associated with elevated mtDNA mutation rates in a selected panel of human tumor tissues, suggesting that this protein can influence mutational frequencies in tumors. The results reported indicate that the mitochondrial function of Polθ may have relevance to human disease.

Conserved Lipid and Small-Molecule Modulation of COQ8 Reveals Regulation of the Ancient Kinase-like UbiB Family.

Human COQ8A (ADCK3) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae Coq8p (collectively COQ8) are UbiB family proteins essential for mitochondrial coenzyme Q (CoQ) biosynthesis. However, the biochemical activity of COQ8 and its direct role in CoQ production remain unclear, in part due to lack of known endogenous regulators of COQ8 function and of effective small molecules for probing its activity in vivo. Here, we demonstrate that COQ8 possesses evolutionarily conserved ATPase activity that is activated by binding to membranes containing cardiolipin and by phenolic compounds that resemble CoQ pathway intermediates. We further create an analog-sensitive version of Coq8p and reveal that acute chemical inhibition of its endogenous activity in yeast is sufficient to cause respiratory deficiency concomitant with CoQ depletion. Collectively, this work defines lipid and small-molecule modulators of an ancient family of atypical kinase-like proteins and establishes a chemical genetic system for further exploring the mechanistic role of COQ8 in CoQ biosynthesis.

Erythropoietin signaling regulates heme biosynthesis.

Heme is required for survival of all cells, and in most eukaryotes, is produced through a series of eight enzymatic reactions. Although heme production is critical for many cellular processes, how it is coupled to cellular differentiation is unknown. Here, using zebrafish, murine, and human models, we show that erythropoietin (EPO) signaling, together with the GATA1 transcriptional target, AKAP10, regulates heme biosynthesis during erythropoiesis at the outer mitochondrial membrane. This integrated pathway culminates with the direct phosphorylation of the crucial heme biosynthetic enzyme, ferrochelatase (FECH) by protein kinase A (PKA). Biochemical, pharmacological, and genetic inhibition of this signaling pathway result in a block in hemoglobin production and concomitant intracellular accumulation of protoporphyrin intermediates. Broadly, our results implicate aberrant PKA signaling in the pathogenesis of hematologic diseases. We propose a unifying model in which the erythroid transcriptional program works in concert with post-translational mechanisms to regulate heme metabolism during normal development.

Mitochondrial protein functions elucidated by multi-omic mass spectrometry profiling.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with many human diseases, including cancer and neurodegeneration, that are often linked to proteins and pathways that are not well-characterized. To begin defining the functions of such poorly characterized proteins, we used mass spectrometry to map the proteomes, lipidomes, and metabolomes of 174 yeast strains, each lacking a single gene related to mitochondrial biology. 144 of these genes have human homologs, 60 of which are associated with disease and 39 of which are uncharacterized. We present a multi-omic data analysis and visualization tool that we use to find covariance networks that can predict molecular functions, correlations between profiles of related gene deletions, gene-specific perturbations that reflect protein functions, and a global respiration deficiency response. Using this multi-omic approach, we link seven proteins including Hfd1p and its human homolog ALDH3A1 to mitochondrial coenzyme Q (CoQ) biosynthesis, an essential pathway disrupted in many human diseases. This Resource should provide molecular insights into mitochondrial protein functions.

Iron Deprivation Induces Transcriptional Regulation of Mitochondrial Biogenesis.

Mitochondria are essential organelles that adapt to stress and environmental changes. Among the nutrient signals that affect mitochondrial form and function is iron, whose depletion initiates a rapid and reversible decrease in mitochondrial biogenesis through unclear means. Here we demonstrate that, unlike the canonical iron-induced alterations to transcript stability, loss of iron dampens the transcription of genes encoding mitochondrial proteins with no change to transcript half-life. Using mass spectrometry, we demonstrate that these transcriptional changes are accompanied by dynamic alterations to histone acetylation and methylation levels that are largely reversible upon readministration of iron. Moreover, histone deacetylase inhibition abrogates the decreased histone acetylation observed upon iron deprivation and restores normal transcript levels at genes encoding mitochondrial proteins. Collectively, we demonstrate that deprivation of an essential nutrient induces transcriptional repression of organellar biogenesis involving epigenetic alterations.

Mitochondrial Protein Interaction Mapping Identifies Regulators of Respiratory Chain Function.

Mitochondria are essential for numerous cellular processes, yet hundreds of their proteins lack robust functional annotation. To reveal functions for these proteins (termed MXPs), we assessed condition-specific protein-protein interactions for 50 select MXPs using affinity enrichment mass spectrometry. Our data connect MXPs to diverse mitochondrial processes, including multiple aspects of respiratory chain function. Building upon these observations, we validated C17orf89 as a complex I (CI) assembly factor. Disruption of C17orf89 markedly reduced CI activity, and its depletion is found in an unresolved case of CI deficiency. We likewise discovered that LYRM5 interacts with and deflavinates the electron-transferring flavoprotein that shuttles electrons to coenzyme Q (CoQ). Finally, we identified a dynamic human CoQ biosynthetic complex involving multiple MXPs whose topology we map using purified components. Collectively, our data lend mechanistic insight into respiratory chain-related activities and prioritize hundreds of additional interactions for further exploration of mitochondrial protein function.

Complementary RNA and protein profiling identifies iron as a key regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis.

Mitochondria are centers of metabolism and signaling whose content and function must adapt to changing cellular environments. The biological signals that initiate mitochondrial restructuring and the cellular processes that drive this adaptive response are largely obscure. To better define these systems, we performed matched quantitative genomic and proteomic analyses of mouse muscle cells as they performed mitochondrial biogenesis. We find that proteins involved in cellular iron homeostasis are highly coordinated with this process and that depletion of cellular iron results in a rapid, dose-dependent decrease of select mitochondrial protein levels and oxidative capacity. We further show that this process is universal across a broad range of cell types and fully reversed when iron is reintroduced. Collectively, our work reveals that cellular iron is a key regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis, and provides quantitative data sets that can be leveraged to explore posttranscriptional and posttranslational processes that are essential for mitochondrial adaptation.

Automated gas-phase purification for accurate, multiplexed quantification on a stand-alone ion-trap mass spectrometer.

Isobaric tagging enables the acquisition of highly multiplexed proteome quantification, but it is hindered by the pervasive problem of precursor interference. The elimination of coisolated contaminants prior to reporter tag generation can be achieved through the use of gas-phase purification via proton transfer ion/ion reactions (QuantMode); however, the original QuantMode technique was implemented on the high-resolution linear ion-trap-Orbitrap hybrid mass spectrometer enabled with electron transfer dissociation (ETD). Here we extend this technology to stand-alone linear ion-trap systems (trapQuantMode, trapQM). Facilitated by the use of inlet beam-type activation (i.e., trapHCD) for production and observation of the low mass-to-charge reporter region, this scan sequence comprises three separate events to maximize peptide identifications, minimize duty cycle requirements, and increase quantitative accuracy, precision, and dynamic range. Significant improvements in quantitative accuracy were attained over standard methods when using trapQM to analyze an interference model system comprising tryptic peptides of yeast that we contaminated with human peptides. Finally, we demonstrate practical benefits of this method by analysis of the proteomic changes that occur during mouse skeletal muscle myoblast differentiation. While the reduced duty cycle of trapQM led to the identification of fewer proteins than conventional operation (4050 vs 2964), trapQM identified more significant differences (>1.5 fold, 1362 vs 1132, respectively; p < 0.05) between the proteomes of undifferentiated myoblasts and differentiated myotubes and nearly 10-fold more differences with changes greater than 5-fold (96 vs 12). We further show that our trapQM dataset is superior for identifying changes in protein abundance that are consistent with the metabolic and structural changes known to accompany myotube formation.

Analysis of the acidic proteome with negative electron-transfer dissociation mass spectrometry.

We describe the first implementation of negative electron-transfer dissociation (NETD) on a hybrid ion trap-orbitrap mass spectrometer and its application to high-throughput sequencing of peptide anions. NETD, coupled with high pH separations, negative electrospray ionization (ESI), and an NETD compatible version of OMSSA, is part of a complete workflow that includes the formation, interrogation, and sequencing of peptide anions. Together these interlocking pieces facilitated the identification of more than 2000 unique peptides from Saccharomyces cerevisiae representing the most comprehensive analysis of peptide anions by tandem mass spectrometry to date. The same S. cerevisiae samples were interrogated using traditional, positive modes of peptide LC-MS/MS analysis (e.g., acidic LC separations, positive ESI, and collision activated dissociation), and the resulting peptide identifications of the different workflows were compared. Due to a decreased flux of peptide anions and a tendency to produce lowly charged precursors, the NETD-based LC-MS/MS workflow was not as sensitive as the positive mode methods. However, the use of NETD readily permits access to underrepresented acidic portions of the proteome by identifying peptides that tend to have lower pI values. As such, NETD improves sequence coverage, filling out the acidic portions of proteins that are often overlooked by the other methods.

Involvement of a mitochondrial phosphatase in the regulation of ATP production and insulin secretion in pancreatic beta cells.

Reversible phosphorylation is the cell's most prevalent form of posttranslational modification, yet its role in the regulation of mitochondrial functions is poorly understood. We have discovered that a member of the dual-specific protein tyrosine phosphatase (DS-PTP) family, PTPMT1 (PTP localized to the Mitochondrion 1) resides nearly exclusively in mitochondria. PTPMT1 is targeted to the mitochondrion by an N-terminal signal sequence and is found anchored to the matrix face of the inner membrane. Knockdown of PTPMT1 expression in the pancreatic insulinoma cell line INS-1 832/13 alters the mitochondrial phosphoprotein profile and markedly enhances both ATP production and insulin secretion. These data define PTPMT1 as a potential drug target for the treatment of type II diabetes and strengthen the notion that mitochondria are an underappreciated site of signaling by reversible phosphorylation.

A PTEN-like phosphatase with a novel substrate specificity.

We show that a novel PTEN-like phosphatase (PLIP) exhibits a unique preference for phosphatidylinositol 5-phosphate (PI(5)P) as a substrate in vitro. PI(5)P is the least characterized member of the phosphoinositide (PI) family of lipid signaling molecules. Recent studies suggest a role for PI(5)P in a variety of cellular events, such as tumor suppression, and in response to bacterial invasion. Determining the means by which PI(5)P levels are regulated is therefore key to understanding these cellular processes. PLIP is highly enriched in testis tissue and, similar to other PI phosphatases, exhibits poor activity against several proteinaceous substrates. Despite a recent report suggesting a role for PI(5)P in the regulation of Akt, the overexpression of wild-type or catalytically inactive PLIP in Chinese hamster ovary-insulin receptor cells or a dsRNA-mediated knockdown of PLIP mRNA levels in Drosophila S2 cells does not alter Akt activity or phosphorylation. The unique in vitro catalytic activity and detailed biochemical and kinetic analyses reported here will be of great value in our continued efforts to identify in vivo substrate(s) for this highly conserved phosphatase.

A PTEN-related 5-phosphatidylinositol phosphatase localized in the Golgi.

Phosphoinositides play important roles as signaling molecules in different cell compartments by regulating the localization and activity of proteins through their interaction with specific domains. The activity of these lipids depends on which sites on the inositol ring are phosphorylated. Signaling pathways dependent on phosphoinositides phosphorylated at the D3 position of this ring (3-phosphoinositides) are negatively regulated by 3-phosphoinositide-specific phosphatases that include PTEN and myotubularin. Using the conserved PTEN catalytic core motif, we have identified a new protein in the Dictyostelium genome called phospholipid-inositol phosphatase (PLIP), which defines a new subfamily of phosphoinositide phosphatases clearly distinct from PTEN or other closely related proteins. We show that PLIP is able to dephosphorylate a broad spectrum of phosphoinositides, including 3-phosphoinositides. In contrast to previously characterized phosphoinositide phosphatases, PLIP has a preference for phosphatidylinositol 5-phosphate, a newly discovered phosphoinositide. We found that PLIP is localized in the Golgi, with its phosphatase domain facing the cytoplasmic compartment. PLIP null cells created via homologous recombination are unable to effectively aggregate to form multicellular organisms at low cell densities. The presence of PLIP in the Golgi suggests that it may be involved in membrane trafficking.